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THE 



HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY 



FROM ITS DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS TO THE CELEBRATION 

OF THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF ITS 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: 

EMBRACING 

AN ACCOUNT OF ITS DISCOVERY; NARRATIVES OF THE STRUGGLES 
OF ITS EARLY SETTLERS; SKETCHES OF ITS HEROES; THE 
HISTORY OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, AND THE 
WAR FOR NATIONALITY; ITS INDUSTRIAL SUC- 
CESSES, AND A RECORD OF ITS WHOLE 
PROGRESS AS A NATION. 



ABBY SAGE RICHARDSON. 

BEAUTIFULLY AND PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED BY 



ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY GRANVILLE PERKINS, 
C. G. BUSH, AND FELIX 0. C. DARLEY, AND PORTRAITS 
OF DISTINGUISHED DISCOVERERS, STATES- 
MEN, GENERALS, AND HEROES. 




BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 

NEW YORK: HURD AND HOUGHTON. 

Cambritigc : €ljc Hitjcr^itie ^tt^^* 

1875. 



Copyright, 1875. 
Abby Sage Richardson. 






o ■>-^ 



KIVERSIDK, CAMBRIDGE; 

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



TO 

MY TWO BOYS, 

WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY HELP TO WAKEN AND KEEP 

ALIVE IN THEIR HEARTS ONE OF THE NOBLEST 

AND MOST SACRED OF HUMAN FEELINGS, 

THE LOVE OF COUNTRY, 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY 

THEIR MOTHER. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

THE STORY OP THE COLONIES : FROM INFANCY TO INDEPENDENCE. 
CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. PAGE 

Christopher Colujihus. — The Route to the East. — Columbus wishes to sail Westward 
to India. — He applies to Portugal and Genoa. — Finally aided by Isabella of Spain. — 
Sets Sail from Palos. — Incidents of Voyage. — Discovers West Indies. — Riches of 
the New World. — Second Voyage 25 

CHAPTER II. 

OTHEK VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 

Portugal finds au Eastern Passage to India. — Columbus and the Egg. — Third Voj^age. — 
Touches the Continent. — Sad Fate of Columbus 33 

CHAPTER III. 

NAMING OF AMERICA, AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. 

Amerigo Vespucci. — The Brothers Pinzon. — Gulf of the Three Brothers. — Florida dis- 
covered. — Fountain of Immortal Youth 35 

CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 

Spanish Colonies. — Vasco Nunez de Balboa. — Avarice of Spaniards. — The Indians lead 
Balboa in Sight of the Land of Gold. —The South Sea 39 

CHAPTER V. 

FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 

Magellan at Patagonia. — The First Potatoes eaten by Europeans. — The Straits of Magel- 
lan. — Death of the Great Navigator. — Return of the Last Ship to Spain . . .41 

CHAPTER VI. 

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

Cortez and Pizarro. — Story of Narvaez. — Cabe(;a de Vaca crosses the Continent. — Fer- 
dinand de Soto. — Grand Army of De Soto. — Story of John Ortiz. — The Great Mis- 
sissippi. — Burial of De Soto. — Return of his Arm j' 43 

CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS. 

Henry VII. of England. — Sebastian Cabot discovers North America. — The French King 
sends Ships to America. — Verrazano comes to New York. — Voyages of Jacques Car- 
tier to Canada. — His Ship lost in the St. Lawrence 49 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 

The French Protestants. — The Land of Flowers. — The Colony of Ribault in Carolina. — 
Spaniards at St. Augustine. — The Spanish massacre the French Colony. — Sad Fate 
of Ribault and his Companions. — Dominic de Gourgues. — He avenges the Murder of 
Frenchmen .53 

CHAPTER IX. 

ENGLISH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage — His Ship struck by an Iceberg. — The Shipwrecked 
Crew. — Walter Raleigh's First Colony. — Homesick Emigrants. — The Lost Colonists 59 

CHAPTER X. 

THE LNDIANS. 

First Inhabitants of America. — Aztecs in Mexico. — The Red Men of the United States. 
— How they looked. — Their Houses. — The Clothes they wore. — Canoes. — Food. — 
Household Implements. — Indian Women. — The Happy Hunting-grounds . . .65 

CHAPTER XI. 

FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 

King James grants Lands in Virginia. — The Sealed Orders for the Colony. — Captain 
John Smith. — His School-days. — Turns Hermit. — Tournament with the Turks. — 
His Slavery in Tartary. — His Character as Leader in a Colony 74 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. 

Smith and Newport explore the Country. — Smith taken Prisoner by Indians. — The 
Young Pocahontas saves his Life. — New Arrivals in Jamestown. — Shipwreck of 
Gates and Somers. — Pocahontas taken Prisoner. — Marriage and Death of Pocahontas 79 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PLANTER IN VIRGINIA. 

How a Settlement was begun. — Exports of the Colonists. — Choosing Sites for Planta- 
tions. — Slavery introduced into Virginia. — Buying a Wife with Tobacco. — Life in 
England in 1607. —A Virginia Planter's House in 1649 84 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A CHAPTER OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 

John Smith sets out on another Voyage. — Queen Elizabeth and her Father. — Bloody 
Mary persecutes the Protestants. — The Puritans. — The Cavaliers. — The Puritan Em- 
igrants in Holland. —They resolve to buy Lands in America . . ... 90 

CHAPTER XV. 

EMIGRATION OF PILGRIMS. 

The Mayflozver sets sail from Plymouth. — Landing in Massachusetts. — Treaty with Mas- 
sasoit. — Struggles of the Colony. — Massachusetts Bay Colony formed. — The Apos- 
tle of the Indians 94 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 

Religious Intolerance. — Roger Williams's Banishment. — He finds Succor from friendl}' 
Indians. — Providence settled. — Religious Freedom in Rhode Island. — Williams gets 
a Charter for his Colonv 102 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER XVII. 

WEST COUNTKY PEOPLE SETTLE CONNECTICUT. 

Settlers in Dorchester. — March to Connecticut Itiver. — New Haven founded. — Traders 
and Fishermen settle New Hampshire and Maine. — Troubles in England. — The King 
beheaded. — Storj' of Oliver Cromwell. — Maine a Province of Massachusetts . . 106 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 

The Country of Holland. — How thej- keep off the Sea. — Dutch Traders. — Henry Hud- 
son sent to America. — Hudson River discovered. — Fur-trade. — New York City be- 
gun. — Indians afraid of Windmills. — Warfare with Indians. — Kieft's Massacre . 109 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SWEDES IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE. 

Peter Minuit and his Colony of Swedes. — They buy New Jersey for an Iron Kettle. — 
New Jersey claimed and named by Three Nations. — A New King in England. — New 
York City becomes an English Colony. — New Jersey named by an English Nobleman 115 

CHAPTER XX. 

SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 

Lord Baltimore and the Carolinas. — Roman Catholic Colony. — Indian Wonder at the Big 
Canoe. — Freedom to worship God. — Papists and Puritans. — Lord Baltimore's Ambi- 
tion.. — Maryland one of the King's Colonies. —Ribault and Raleigh's Unsuccessful 
Colonies. — The Carolinas settled again 118 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 

Persecution of Quakers. — William Penn the Admiral. — His only Son turns Quaker. — 
Dress and Manners of Quakers. — Young Penn inherits his Father's Wealth. — He 
brings a Colony to America. — Treaty with Indians. —City of Brotherly Love. —Nam- 
ing of Pennsylvania. — Delaware made a Separate Colony 122 

CHAPTER XXII. 

GEORGIA SETTLED. 

Another Colony planned. — General Oglethorpe. — The Town of Savannah begun. — 
Oglethorpe's Treaty. - Speech of Indian War-chief. — March of Salzburgers. — Pro- 
slaver\' Agitators. — John Wesley the Great Methodist. — Georgia becomes a Royal 
Province 125 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

KING PHILIP'S WAP.. 

The Thirteen Colonies. — The Colonists' Fear of the Indians. — Philip, the Son of friendly 
Massasoit. — John Sassamon tells Tales of Philip. —Blood shed by English and In- 
dians. — Outbreak of Indian War. — The Attack on Hadley. — " The Indians! The 
Indians!" — Appearance of the Strange Warrior. — The Regicides. — Death of King 
Philip. — End of the War . 128 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. 

Governor William Berkeley. — " Thank God there are no Free Schools in Virginia! " — 
John Washington fights Maryland Indians. — Savages retaliate. — Natlianiel Bacon 



viii CONTENTS. 

goes into the Field without a Commission. — He is declared Traitor. — Great Excite- 
ment in Jamestown. — Attack on the Town. — Bacon's Death. — Berkelej' hangs the 
Rebels. — The King calls him back to Elngland. — What the King said of Berkeley . 134 

CHAPTER XXV. 

AFFAIRS IN NEW YORK AND MASSACHUSETTS. 

England and Holland at War. — The Dutch take New York City again. — Edmund An- 
dros in Boston. — His Tyrannies there. — His Journey to Connecticut. — Disappear- 
ance of the Charter. — The New English King. — Uprising in New York. — Leisler 
executed. — Charter Oak 137 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 

Belief in Witches. — Causes for this Belief. — The Idea of the Devil. — Study of Necro- 
mancy. — Two Children "bewitched." — Arrest of Friendless Old Women. — Babies 
chained and thrown into Prison as Witches. — Torture of Witches. — Confessions. — 
Hanging of Women. — Witches' Hill. — End of the Witchcraft Madness . . .141 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

INTER-COLONIAL WARS. 

War between French and English Colonies. — The French League with Indians. — Hor- 
rors of Indian Warfare. — Story of Hannah Dustin. — Bravery of the Women. — 
Towns destroyed. — Peace declared. — Another War. — Peace of Utrecht. — George's 
War. — Peace of Aix-la Chapelle 146 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

FRENCH DISCOVERERS AND JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 

Colony of Jacques Cartier. — French Fishermen. — Samuel Champlain the Father of New 
France. — .Jesuits on the Mississippi. — Storj' of Isaac .Jogues. — Indians worshiping 
with Roman Catholics ■ 150 

CHAPTER XXIX 

THE MISSISSIPPI EXPLORED. 

James Marquette is sent to the Great River. — He goes with Joliet to Wisconsin. — Carry- 
ing their Canoes on their Backs. — The Bison and Deer. — Greeting of the Illinois. — 
Death of Marquette. — Robert La Salle in Illinois. — Fort Heartbreak. — Murder of 
La Salle. — Hennepin goes to Falls of St. Anthony. — Adventures of Marquette and 
Joliet. — Explorations of the Mississippi River by La Salle and.Hennepin . . .153 

CH.\PTER XXX. 

THE LAST COLONIAL WAR. 

Position of French and English Colonies. —The English Colonies hug the Sea-coast.— 
Jealousy between the Nations. — Trouble brewing. — Young George Washington.— 
His Winter Journe}' to Fort Dnquesne 157 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

FOUR EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH. 

Plan of the Campaign. — Braddock's Contempt for American Militia. —George Washing- 
ton in the Expedition — Braddock's Defeat. — French Neutrals. — Burning of Aca- 
die.— Evangeline. — Sir William Johnson. — King Hendrick killed . . . .161 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

SECOND TEAR OF WAR. 

French Fortifications in America. — War in earnest. — Story of Mrs. Howe and her Chil- 
dren. — Massacre at Fort William Henry. — Loss of a Noble Young Leader. — George 
Washington'^ Advice to the British Colonel. — The City of Quebec. — Wolfe ap- 
proaches the Fortress. — The Heights of Abraham. — Defeat of the French. — Death 
of Wolfe. — Peace at last 167 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

A TOUR IN A.MEKICA. 

Sailing for Boston. — Boston in 17G0, — Dress of Lady and Gentleman. — Thanksgiving 
in New England. — Irish Flax Spinners. — By Stage-coach to New Haven. — New 
York Harbor. — A Dutch Interior. — Drive through New York City. — New Year's 
Day. — Up the Hudson to Albany. — Journey through New .Jersey. — How Philadel- 
phia Streets were named. — The Great State-house Bell. — Account of Benjamin Frank- 
lin. — Plantations in Virginia. — Christmas Festivities. — A Group of Noble Virgin- 
ians. — Cotton Crop of Eliza Lucas 173 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

trPRISING OF THE COLONIES. 

The New King. — Royal Treasury empty. — Taxation without Representation. — Stirring 
Scene in Boston State-house. — The People and the Stamp Act. — Speech of Patrick 
Henry. — Our Defenders in England 186 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

MORE OPPRESSION. 

Daughters of Liberty. — Redcoats in Boston. — Boston Massacre. — Boy Rebels. — Tax on 
Tea. — First Continental Congress. — The Man who attended it. — Speech of William 
Pitt. — Whigs and Tories. — The Patriotic Barber. — Yankee Doodle .... 191 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 

Hidden Stores of Gunpowder and Bullets. — Paul Revere's Ride. — Midnight March. — 
Scene at Lexington Meetinghouse. — First Blood shed. — Destruction of Stores. — 
The Retreat and Pursuit. — Lord Percy at Charlestown. — "Yankee Doodle" and 
"Chevy Chase" 198 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

TICONDEROGA AND BUNKER HILL. 

Congress meets again. — George Washington made Commander of the Armies. — Green 
Mountain Boys. — Ethan Allen takes Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Oglethorpe re- 
fuses to fight the Americans. — Noble Words of Samuel Adams. — Americans on Bun- 
ker Hill. — Battle of Bunker Hill. — The Monument there 204 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

WASHINGTON AND HIS ARMY. 

Washington's Camps about Boston. —The Patriot Generals. — Story of Israel Putnam. — 
Dress of the Soldiers. — Pennsylvania Riflemen. — Story of a Marksman. — Washing- 
ton's Anxieties -'1-' 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 

On to Canada. — Montgomery clothes his Soldiers in Montreal. — Benedict Arnold's Heroic 
March to Quebec. — Attack on the Citadel. — Montgomery's Death. — Brave Act of 
Aaron Burr. — Retreat from Canada 215 

CHAPTER XL. 

AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The Redcoats imprisoned in Boston. — Howe concludes to leave Boston. — The Tories go to 
Halifax. — Entrance of Washington into Boston. — Joy of the Patriots. — Washington 
goes to New York. — The Hessians in America. — A British Fleet attacks Charleston 218 

CHAPTER XLI. 

INDEPENDENCE DECLARED. 

Colonial Feeling towards England. — The Declaration of Independence. — Our National 
Holiday. — Retreat from Kipp's Landing. — Anger of Washington. — Mrs. Murray's 
Ruse to save General Putnam. — Retreat through New Jersey. — A Gloomy Outlook 
for Washington. — Bad News from Newport and Lake Champlain. — Prison Ships. — 
Washington crosses the Delaware. — Victory at Trenton 221 

CHAPTER XLII. 

EVENTS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA IN 1777. 

Rebels and Redcoats in Friendly Converse. — Battle of Princeton. — Washington at Mor- 
ristown. — The Marquis de Lafayette. — Other Noble Foreigners. — Defeat at Brandy- 
wine. — Story of Lydia Darrah. — Good News on the Way 227 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

BUKGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. 

The Burning of Danbury. — General Burgoyne. — The Tory Brant. — Burgoyne takes 
Ticonderoga. — Defense of Fort Stanwix. — Brave General Herkimer. — Massacre of 
Jane McCrea. — Murmurs against General Schuyler. — The Relief of Fort Stanwix. — 
Stark's Speech at Bennington. — The Encampment on Bemis Heights. — Battle of Sar- 
atoga. — Surrender of Burgoj-ne 232 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE YEAR 1778. 

Gayeties in Philadelphia. —The Terrible Winter at Valley Forge. — Story of Washington 
and the Farmer. — Molly Pitcher at Monmouth. — Philadelphia ours once more. — The 
Wyoming Massacre. — Tories and Indians. — Atrocities of the W3'oming Attack. — 
End of the Year 2-39 

CHAPTER XLV. 

SAVANNAH AND STONY POINT. 

Continental Money. — Lincoln and Count D'Estaing at Savannah. — Defeat to the Ameri- 
cans. — INIad Anthony Wayne. — The Forlorn Hope. — Taking of Stony Point . . 243 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

JOHN PAUL JONES. 

Privateers. — Daring Adventure of John Paul Jones. — The Bon Homme Rlchari. — Fight 
with the. Strains. — The Ships tied together. — Victory 246 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

EVENTS DURING 1779. 

Discontent in the Arm}'. — Flogging of Soldiers. — Taking of Charleston by the British. 
— Tarleton's Quarter. — General Marion's Militia. — Story of Marion and the British 
Officer. — Count Rochambeau in Khode Island 250 

CHAPTER XLVHI. 

TKEASON OF BENEDICT AltNOLD. 

West Point. — Gustavus, and John Anderson. — Capture of Colonel Andr^. — Escape of 
Benedict Arnold. — Andre condemned to be hanged. — His Letter to Washington. — 
Plot to save Andr(5. — Feigned Desertion of Chanipe. — The Execution of Andr^. — 
Failure of Champe's Enterprise and his Return 253 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

DEFE.VT AND VICTOltY IN THE SOUTH. 

Misfortunes of Gates in South Carolina. — A Stronghold on King's Mountain. — General 
Greene takes Command. — A Ragged Army. — Victory at Cowpens. — Sharp Retort 
of a Patriotic Woman. — The Bravery of South Carolina Women .... 260 

CHAPTER L. 

GREENE'S CAMPAIGN. 

March through the Carolinas. — Attack upon Camden. — Fort Ninety-six. — Eutaw 
Springs 265 

CHAPTER LI. 

THE WINTER OF 1780-81. 

Mutiny in the Army. — Riot among Wayne's Troops. — Mutineers shot. — Benedict Ar- 
nold ravages Virginia. — Governor Thomas Jefferson. — Arnold in his Native State. — 
Barbarous Murder of Colonel Ledyard. — Concentration of the French and American 
Forces for Campaign of 1781 267 

CHAPTER LII. 

SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. 

March of French Army to Virginia. — The whole Army of Washington before Yorktown. 
— The Batteries open Fire. — Cornwallis attempts to Escape. — His Surrender. — Gen- 
eral Lincoln's Revenge. — End of the War 271 

CHAPTER LIII. 

CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Savannah and Charleston evacuated by the British. — England baited on all Sides. — She 
is glad to have Peace. — Our Great Statesmen during the War. — Benjamin Franklin 
in France. — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. — Henry Laurens in the Tower of 
London. — John Jay. — The First Secretary of the Treasury. — The Commission to 
Treat for Peace. — The Thirteen English Colonies become the Nation of the United 
States. — Evacuation of New York City. — Fireworks on Bowling Green. — Washing- 
ton's Farewell to his Officers. — Affecting Scene in Francis's Tavern .... 274 



xii CONTENTS. 

PART II. 

THE STORY OF THE NATION : ITS BIKTII, CONFI^ICTS, AND TRIUMPHS. 
CHAPTER I. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Forming a Government. — The Constitution and its Makers. — Grand Celebration in New 
York City. — The Two Political Parties. — Washington made President. — Inaugura- 
tion Bjill. — Change in Dress and Manners after the Revolution 28-3 

CHAPTER II. 

EVENTS IN WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 

Settlers in the Western Countr}'. — " D. Boon cilled a Bar." — Scarcity of Salt. — Dan- 
ger from Indians. — General Anthony Wayne sent to fight Savages. — Death of 
Wayne. — Three New States added to the Nation. — Story of Young Andrew Jackson. 
— Revolution in France. — The Guillotine. — French S3'nipathizers in the United' 
States. — Washington's Public Life draws to a Close 288 

CHAPTER HI. 

ADAMS' S ADMINISTRATION. 

War with France imminent. — Washington and Napoleon. — The Nation mourns at Wash- 
ington's Death. — The Capital changed to Washington City. — Mrs. Adams's Expe- 
riences in Washington 294 

CHAPTER IV. 
Jefferson's presidency. 
The Purchase of Louisiana. — The First Journey from Ocean to Ocean. — Lewis and 
Clarke's Expedition. — The Sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. — The 
Great Pacific Ocean. — Return of Lewis and Clarke 297 

CHAPTER V. 

WAR WITH ALGERINE PIRATES. 

Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. — Demands of these Sea Robbers on United States. — 
General Eaton's Interview with the Bey of Tunis. —Royal Beggars. —War declared. 

Darin"- Feat of Decatur. — The Philadelphia burned in the Harbor of Tripoli. — 

The Bashaw Ilamet. — End of War 301 

CHAPTER VI. 

Jefferson's second term. 
Aaron Burr's Duel with Hamilton. — Hamilton's Death. — Burr's Disgrace. — First Steam- 
boat on the Hudson. — Fulton's Triumph. —The Great Event of Jefferson's Adminis- 
tration 



309' 



CHAPTER VII. 
Madison's presidency. 
Character of Madison. —Tecumseh. — William Henry Han-ison, Governor of Indiana.— 
The Visit of Tecumseh. — The Prophet. — Battle of Tippecanoe. — Impressment of 
American Sailors on English Ships. — The Leopard and Chesapeake. — War declared 
ao-ainst England. — Flogging of an American Sailor. — War Feeling in the United 
States '^^^ 



CONTENTS. xiii 



CHAPTER VIII. 

OPENING OF THE WAR OF 1812. 

The Scene of War. — IIull's Surrender of Detroit. — Disgrace of Hull. — The Chicao-o 
Massacre. — Young Winfield Scott. — Defeat on all Sides 316 

CHAPTER IX. 

VICTORIES ON THE OCEAN. 

The Constitution beats the Guei-riere. — The Wasp on a Frolic. — Decatur wins Fresh 
Laurels. — Flag of the Macedonian presented to Mrs. Madison. — Bainbridge and the 
Constitution. — British Anger at Defeat 320 

CHAPTER X. 

EVENTS OF 1813. 

Bounty on American Scalps. — The Slaughter at Frenchtown. — The Hornet meets the 
Peacock. — Lawrence takes command of the Chesapeake. — The Shannon challenges 
the Chesapeake. — Death of Lawrence. — " Don't give up the Ship " . . . . 324 

CHAPTER *XI. 

BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 

Ship-building on the Lake. — A Stage-coach loaded with Sailors. — The Look-out at Put- 
in Bay. — The Battle begins. — Commodore Perry's Ship disabled. — He rows to the 
Niagara. — Victory on Lake Erie. — Battle of the Thames , 328 

CHAPTER XII. 

FRESH VICTORIES AND DEFEATS. 

The Battle of Chippewa. — Scott at Lundj^'s Lane. — Admiral Cockburn sails up the Poto- 
mac. — Alarm at Washington. — The Defense at Blagdensburg. — Invasion of Wash- 
ington. — The Dinner at the White House. — Baltimore besieged. — The Star Span- 
gled Banner 332 

CHAPTER Xlir. 

MACDONOUGH's VICTORY. 

" Old Ironsides." — Macdonough on Lake Champlain. — Fight on Lake and on Shore. — 
Victory in the Fleet. — The British Defeat at Plattsburg 338 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR. 

Signs of Peace. — Andrew Jackson at New Orleans. — Organizes Regiments of Black 
Men. — Preparations for a Merry Christmas in Camp. — Barricades of Sugar Hogs- 
heads. — Battle of New Orleans. — The Peace Anarel. — A New President elected . 341 



CHAPTER XV. 

MONROE AND ADAMS. 

More Pirates. — War with Indians. — Lafayette's Visit. — Five New States. — Monroe 
Doctrine. — Another President from Massacliusetts. — Death of Two Patriots. — Mas- 
sachusetts and Virginia. — A Democratic President 345 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

RAILROADS AND BANKS. 

Character of Andrew Jackson. — Traveling by Steam. — Tram-\va3's. — Oliver Evans's 
Steam-engine. — George Stephenson. — Jackson's War with the Banks. — The First 
National Banks. — Jackson vetoes the Bank Charter 352 

CHAPTER XVH. 

NULLIFIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Manufactures in United States. — They ask for a "Protective Tariff." — The South 
threaten Rebellion. — Three Great Men. — The Man of the South. — The Man of the 
West. — The Man of the North. — Wrath of Jackson. — Speech of Daniel Webster. — 
The Nullifiers subdued. — Indian Troubles again. — The Indians moved West. — 
Jackson returns to his Hermitage 358 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

"Old Hickory" and "Old Ironsides." — Hard Times. — Log Cabin Campaign. — Death 
of General Harrison. — John Tyler's Presidency. — A New Invention. — Samuel 
Morse, the Artist and Inventor. — Invention of the Telegraph. — A New Political 
Question 307 

CHAPTER XIX. 

BRIEF HISTORY OF SIEXICO. 

Spanish Conquest of Mexico. — Inhabitants of Mexico. — Americans in Texas. — Sam 
Houston. — Texas rebels against Mexico, and asks to join the United States . . 371 

CHAPTER XX. 

BEGINNING OF THE jMEXICAN WAR. 

"OldZach."— Troops on the Rio Grande. —/'((to .4?^. — The Prairie on Fire.-^A^at- 
tle-tield by Night. — Victory over the Mexicans. — Crossing the Eio Grsfnde. — 
Scenery about Monterey. — Capture of the Bishop's Palace. — Siege of the Town. — 
Monterey taken 375 

CHAPTER XXI. 

INVASION OF JIEXICO. 

Army of the West. — Conquest of New Mexico.— Fremont, the Explorer of the Rocky 
Mountains. — He enters California. — Kit Carson. — Fremont declares California an 
Independent State. —The Army of the Centre. — " Rough and Ready." — Bragg's 
■ Battery. — Victory of Buena Vista. — Five Thousand Miles' March . . . .378 

CHAPTER XXII. 

SCOTT'S march TO MEXICO. 

The Fortress of San Jnan D'Ulloa. — Vera Cruz. — The Road to the Mexico. — Cerro 
Gordo, or "Big Hill." —The Ascent of the Hill. —In the Cordilleras. — The Defenses 
of Mexico. — The Hill at Contreras. — The Bridge at Churubusco.— The King's Mill. 

— Grasshopper Hill. — School-boys' Defense of their Academy. — Entry into Mexico. 

— End of War 389 



CONTENTS. XV 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE NKW ELDORADO. 

General Taylor made President. — Gold in California. — The Gold Fever. — Death of 
Taylor. — Fillmore succeeds him. — Election of Franklin Pierce 397 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

SLAVERY IN UNITED STATES. 

Beginning of African Slavery. — First Triumph of Slavery in Georgia. — The North and 
South. — Washington's Letter to Lafayette. — Slavery in the Constitution. — The 
Slave-trade. — Turner's "Slave-ship." — Disputes about Slaverj^ — Chattel Votes. — 
California wants to be a Free State. — Anger of the South 403 

CHAPTER XXV. 

EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 

Extravagance of the Tobacco Planter. — Poor Whites. — Black House-servants. — Cott.( n 
Plantations. — Three Classes in the South 409 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A NEW PARTY. 

The First Abolitionist. — A Mob in Boston. — Siiooting of Lovejoy. — The Cradle of Lib- 
erty. — A Quaker Poet. — Arguments on both Sides. — Gunpowder and Cold Steel . 413 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

The President from New Hampshire. — Escape of Fugitive Slaves. — Story of Margaret 
Garner. — The Missouri Compromise. — Beating of Charles Sumner. — " Indignation " 
Meetings. — The Awkward Lawyer, and the Little Giant 417 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 

Settling Kansas. — Free-state Emigrants. — Bloodshed on the Plains. — Sharps's Rifles. — 
A Modern Puritan. — The "John Brown Tract." — Attack on Lawrence. — Old Ossa- 
watoniie. — Kansas a Free State 421 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

RAID, INTO VIRGINIA. 

Presidential Contest of 1850. — An Exodus of Slaves. — The "Kennedy Farm." — Sur- 
prise of the Watchmen at Harper's Feny. — The Arsenal taken. — John Brown Pikes 
— Arrival of Soldiers. — Capture of John Brown. — His Trial. — John Brown's 
Speech. — Sentence and Execution. — Scene on the Gallows 426 

CHAPTER XXX. 

LINCOLN ELECTED PRESIDENT. 

Party Quarrels. —The Story of Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood. — Feeling of the South.— 
Threats to break up the Union. — Joy in ^outh Carolina at Lincoln's Election. — What 
is Treason? — Difference between Northern and Southern Patriotism . . . .431 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

BEGIMXING OF HOSTILITIES. 

Inauguration Speech of Lincoln. — Coercion. — National Property. — Forts in Charleston 
Harbor. — Guns opened on Fort Sumter. — The Bombardment. — The Flag hauled 
down. — Intense Excitement. — Patriotism in the North. — Patriotism in the South . 436 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE MARCH THROUGH BALTIMORE. 

The Regiment from Massachusetts. — Mob in Baltimore. —Anniversary of Battle of Lex- 
ington. — General Scott. — The Seventh Regiment of New York. — A Volunteer Offi- 
cer. — Federal Hill 444 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE SECEDING STATES. 

An Armed Rebellion. — The Southern Confederacy. — The Seven Pioneers of Secession. 

— East Tennessee. — The Stars and Bars. — Ellsworth Zouaves. — Death of Ellsworth. 

— Contrabands. — Theodore Winthrop 448 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

The Ghost of Csesar. — Rich Mountain. — Carrick's Ford. — Union Defeat. — Loyalty in 
the Mountains 453 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT. 

A Knot of Railways. — General Beauregard. — A Moonlight March. — The Stone Bridge. 

— The Cromwell of Rebellion. — Stonewall Jackson. — "Johnston's Men are upon us." 

— Bull Run 457 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE GREAT BOEDER STATE. 

Border Ruffians. — The Faithful Germans. — Keeping Neutral. — The "Rebel Yell" — 
Heroic Death of Lyon. — Fremont in St. Louis. — His Proclamation. — Removal from 
Command. — Fremont's Body-guard. — Charge of the Guard. — Beriah Magoffin. — 
McClellan commimds the Army of tlie Potomac. — All Quiet on the River . . .462 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

AFFAIRS ON THE SEA-COAST. 

The Blockade. — Blockade Runners. — The Sea Islands. —A Steamboat Waltz. — The 
Trent. — Seizure of Prisoners on an English Ship. — Feeling of England. — Danger of 
War averted ^^'^ 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

TAKING OF DONELSON. 

Gibraltar of the West. — U. S. Grant in Cairo. —Patience and Perseverance. — Commo- 
dore Foote batters Fort Henry. — The Muddy Road to Donelson. — The Rebel Ruse.— 
Grant detects the Design. — Fall of Donelson. — Unconditional Surrender. — Halleck in 
Missouri. — A Renegade Poet. — Pea Ridge. — Guerrillas. — Close of the Year 1862 . 472 



CONTENTS. xvii 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

AVOKK ON THE OCEAN IN 1862. 

Hampton Roads. — The Burnside Expedition. — A Formidable Monster. — How the Cum- 
berland went down. — A Cheese Box on a Raft. — Fight of the Monitor and Merrimack 479 

CHAPTER XL. 

SHILOII, ISLAND NO. 10, AND CORINTH. 

The Log Meeting-house. — The Surprise. — "Drive the Yankees into Uie River." — Beau- 
regard's Great Victor3^ — The Tide turns next Morning. — Cutting a Canal under Wa- 
ter. — Taking of Island No. 10. — The Siege of Corinth. — Beauregard's Last Strat- 
egy. —The Nation had found its Leader . 482 

CHAPTER XLI. 

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

Ship Island. — Admiral Farragut. — Birnam Wood. — A Huge Fire Monster. — Cutting 
away the Barriers. — Passing the Forts. — The Levee at New Orleans. — A Bombastic 
Major. — Temper of the Citizens. — What " Beast Butler " did in New Orleans . . 489 

CHAPTER XLH. 

PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 

Quiet on the Potomac. — Quaker Guns. — Transportation of an Army. — On to Richmond. 

— Death in the Swamps. — Norfolk taken by General Wool. — Stonewall Jackson in 
Western Virginia. — Seven Days' Retreat. — Discouragement of the President . . 495 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

INVASION OF MARYLAND. 

Pope takes Command. — More Defeats. — Maryland ! my Maryland ! — Entrance into 
Frederick. — Barbara Frietchie. — Through the Mountain-gap. — McClellan makes 
haste. — The Antietam Creek. — Fighting Joe Hooker. — The Battle. — Lee's Retreat. 

— Burnside made Commander. — Ruins of Fredericksburg 499 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 

Generals Bragg, Polk, and Hardee. — The Queen City threatened. — Southern Rhetoric. 

— Armor of the Southern Soldiers. — Rebel Spoils in Kentucky. — Battle of Corinth. — 
Christmas Jollity at Murfreesboro'. — Rosecrans marches on the Revelers. — " We fight, 

or die here." — Victory for Unionists 508 

CHAPTER XLV. 

EMANCIPATION. 

The Day of Jubilee. — Sambo in the Union Lines. — The Loyal Chattel. — Lincoln on 
the Union and Slavery. — His Solemn Vow. — The Emancipation Proclamation. — 
Prejudice against Negro Soldiers 514 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

SIEGE OF A^ICKSBURG. 

Western Men. — Surroundings of Vicksburg. — Digging a Canal again. — Running the 
Batteries. — Grant's Baggage. — The Assaults. — Bombardment. — Surrender. — Port 
Hudson. — The Mississippi flows unvexed to the Sea 517 



xviii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE WAK IN THE EAST. 

The Army in Winter-quarters. — Stonewall Jackson's Death. — Invasion of Pennsylvania. 

— The Call for a Leader. — Gettysburg. — Sanitary Commission. — Horrors of a Battle- 
field. — Narrative of an Eye-witness. — A Modern Sidney. — The Consecration of Get- 
tysburg ... 524 

CHAPTER XLVni. 

EIOTS IN NEW YOKK CITY. 

Drafting. — Traitors in the North. — A Peace Party. — Beginning of the Draft. — The 
Mob. — Destruction of Private Property. — Mob Violence is suppressed . . .530 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

EFFOBTS TO TAKE CHARLESTON. 

Three Strongholds of the Enemy. — Monitors in Charleston Harbor. — Folly Island. — The 
Storming of Wagner. — Robert Shaw "buried under his Niggers." — The Swamp An- 
gel. — Fall of Wagner 533 

CHAPTER L. 

GUERIilLLA RAIDS. 

John Morgan. — Raid into Indiana. —A Plucky Colonel. —Ohio at Morgan's Mercy.— 
Capture of Morgan. — Morgan's Escape from Prison. — Quantrell and his Ruffians. — 
The Sack of Lawrence. — A Hideous Butchery 537 

CHAPTER LI. 

CHATTANOOGA AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 

Chattanooga Valley. — The Gateway of the Mountains. — Mission Ridge. — Defeat of 
Union Troops. — "Hold Chattanooga, or starve." — Battle in the Clouds. — The 
Rebels' last stand. — Victor3' for the Nation 540 

CHAPTER LII. 
kilpatrick's raid. 

Prison Pens. — Their Horrors. — Kilpatrick and Dahlgren. — Dahlgi-en lost in the Woods. 

— Shot from an Ambush. — Robbing his Body. — Return of Kilpatrick .... 544 

CHAPTER LIII. 

GRANT IN VIRGINIA. 

Old Virginia.— Lincoln's Passes to Richmond. — First Meeting of Grant and Lincoln. 

— A Baulky Team. — Hard Times in Richmond. — The Wilderness. — "Grant not a 
Retreating Man." — Slow " Hammering." — " We will fight it out on this Line " . 547 

CHAPTER LIV. 

SHERIDAN'S RIDE. 

General Phil. Sheridan. — Jubal Early's Raid. — Sheridan "Goes in." — The Ride from 
Winchester. — The Army settles round Petersburg. — A Mine exploded.— A Pit of 
Death 553 



CONTENTS. xix 



CHAPTER LV. 

THE WAK IN THE WEST. 

Red River Expedition. — Forrest's Raid. — Butchery at Fort Pillow. — Secret Societies. — 
End of the Struggle in Missouri . . .557 

CHAPTER LVI. 

KAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 

A Confederate Navy. — Ships built in English Ports. — The Alabama. — Fight with the 
Kearsarge. — Story of a Brave Sailor. — Collins violates Neutrality Laws. — The Bat- 
tle of IMobile Bay. — Farragut lashed to the JMain-top. — The Gulf is Ours . . .560 

CHAPTER LVn. 

ON TO ATLANTA. 

William T. Sherman. — The Three Armies. — Rebel Generals. — The Army fights its 
Waj^ to Atlanta. — McPherson killed. — " Atlanta is Ours and fairly won." — Designs 
against Nashville. — " Old Reliable." — Nashville saved 564 

CHAPTER LVni. 

THE MAKCII TO THE SEA. 

The Arm}' begins its March. — The Army Battle Hymn. — The Land of Plenty. — Prison 
Pen at Millen. — " Old Glory." — The Sight of the Sea. — Lincoln's Christmas Pres- 
ent. — Sherman goes North. — Burning of Columbia. — Charleston restored to the Na- 
tion. — Nearing the End of the March. — The Forlorn Hope of Johnston. — It is baf- 
fled at Bentonsville. — Sherman joins Grant 569 

CHAPTER LIX. 

LAST FLASHES OF WAR. 

Mobile taken. — " Remember Fort Pillow." — The Last Stand at Selnia. — The Post before 
Petersburg. — Lee's last Attempt. — Five Forks. — Confusion in Richmond. — Lee's 
Surrender to Grant. — The last Parade. — The Cruel War is over 576 

CHAPTER LX. 

THE ASSASSINATION. 

The Joy of the Nation. — Last Speech of Lincoln. — Li the Theatre. —The Murder.— 
Seward's attempted Assassination. — The Last Martyrs to Rebellion. — The Murderer 
at Bay. — His Death. — Fate of the Conspirators. — The End 582 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOJSTS. 



PAGE 

Discovery of the Hudson River Frontispiece 

A Northman's Vessel 26 

Ciiristopher Columbus 27 

The Ocean and Islands between Western 
Europe and Eastern Asia (from the 

Map of Martin Behaim, 1492) ... 29 

Columbus before the Council .... 30 

The Fleet of Columbus 31 

Isabella 34 

Amerigo Vespucci 35 

Balboa 40 

Ferdinand de Soto 45 

Sebastian Cabot 50 

Verrazano . . 51 

Cartier's Ship 52 

French Nobleman in 1540 53 

English Gentleman, 1580 59 

Sir Walter Raleigh 59 

Drake's Ship 02 

Indian Wigwam 67 

American Deer 68 

Indian Weapons 70 

Medicine Dance 71 

Indian Pipes 72 

Building Jamestown 74 

John Smith 74 

Pocahontas 84 

Tobacco Plant 86 

A Puritan 93 

Pilgrims Embarking 95 

The Maj'tlower 95 

Pilgrim Costumes 90 

Peaceful Overtm-es from Indians ... 97 

Carver's Chair 99 

Signatures of Pilgrims 99 

Leyden Street, Pij'mouth, Massachu- 

.setts, in 1874 100 

Signatures of Massachusetts Baj'^ Colo- 
nists 101 

John Eliot's Signature 102 

Roger Williams 104 

Early New England House 105 

Early Meeting-house 109 

Dutch Windmill 110 

Henrj^ Hudson Ill 



PAGE 

The Half-moon 112 

A Dutchman, 1660 114 

Peter Stuyvesant 116 

New York in 1664 118 

Lord Baltimore 119 

William Penn 124 

Penn's Assembly House 125 

General Oglethorpe 126 

King Philip 130 

Palisaded Buildings 131 

Cave of the Regicides 132 

Indian Attack 147 

Braddock's Head-quarters in Virginia . 160 

Braddock 162 

Evangeline 163 

Acadians leaving Home 164 

Sir William Johnson 164 

Block-house on Lake Erie 165 

Block-house 166 

Lord Howe 170 

General Wolfe 173 

A Boston House 175 

Spinning-wheel 176 

A Dutch Household in New York ... 180 

American Stage-coach 178 

Cotton Plant 185 

William Pitt 186 

James Otis 188 

Patrick Henry 189 

Patrick Henry before the Assembly . . 190 

Badge of Sons of Liberty 191 

Faneuil Hall 192 

Samuel Adams 195 

Paul Revere's Ride 201 

George Washington 205 

Benjamin Franklin 206 

John Hancock 208 

Joseph Warren 210 

Plan of Bunker Hill, and Monument . 211 

General Putnam 212 

The Stars and Stripes 219 

General Moultrie . 220 

Liberty Bell 221 

Independence Hall 222 

General Burgoyne 232 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XXI 



Joseph Brant 233 

Philip Schuyler 236 

General Gates 237 

Count D'Estaing 241 

Count Pulaski 244 

Paul Jones 246 

Engagement of the Bon Homme Richard 

with the Serapis 247 

Francis Marion 252 

Benedict Arnold 254 

Major Andre 255 

Henry Lee 258 

Baron de Kalb 260 

Kosciusko 261 

Nathanael Greene 262 

Women intercepting Dispatches . . . 264 

Lafayette 270 

Rochambeau 271 

Plan of Siege of Yorktown 272 

Cornwallis 273 

John Jay 277 

Robert Morris . . 278 

General Knox 280 

George Washington 283 

Martha Washington 284 

Inauguration of Washington .... 285 

New Settlers 289 

Daniel Boone 290 

John Adams 295 

Thomas Jefferson 297 

The Untrod Prairie 299 

Decatur burning the Philadelphia . . 303 

Lieutenant Decatur 305 

Mohammedan Soldier 306 

Alexander Hamilton 307 

Aaron Burr 308 

Robert Fulton 309 

Fitch's Philadelphia and Trenton Packet 310 

Fulton's Clermont Steamer 310 

James Madison 311 

Felucca Gun-boat 316 

Captain Lawrence 327 

Oliver H. Perry 330 

Cockburn's Fleet sailing up the Potomac 335 

FortMcHenry . 338 

Commodore Macdonough 339 

Plan of Battle of New Orleans . . . 344 

James Monroe 346 

J. Q. Adams 348 

Pioneers traveling West 349 

Andrew Jackson 353 

Oliver Evans's Road Engine .... 354 

First Railway Passenger Engine . . . 355 

First Railway Coach 356 

John C. Calhoun 360 

Henry Clay 361 

Daniel Webster -362 

The Palmetto 363 

Osceola 364 



Indians moving West 365 

Martin Van Buren *. . . 367 

William Henr^-^ Harrison 368 

John Tyler 369 

Samuel F. B. Morse 371 

Mexican Farm-house 373 

Sam Houston 374 

The Spanish Bayonet 380 

Prairie Dogs 38I 

Mexican Town 382 

Conquest of New Mexico 383 

Kit Carson 335 

Santa Anna 387 

Plan of Intrenchments at Vera Cruz . 390 

Winfield Scott 391 

Zachary Taylor 395 

San Francisco in 1849 398 

Scenery in California — Yosemite Falls 399 

Mining in California 401 

Millard Fillmore 402 

Picking Cotton 411 

Sugar-cane 412 

Franklin Pierce 417 

John Brown 421 

James Buchanan 424 

Lawrence, Kansas, in 1857 425 

John C. Fremont 426 

Abraham Lincoln 432 

.Jefferson Davis 434 

Sand Bag Battery at Fort Moultrie . . 438 

Robert Anderson 439 

Banner of South Carolina 440 

Fort Sumter after Bombardment . . . 440 

Setting out for the Army 441 

Union Square, New York, April, 1861 . 445 

Federal Hill 447 

The Secession Flag 449 

Zouave 4.50 

Ephraim E. Ellsworth ...... 451 

Exodus of Slaves 452 

An Army Forge 453 

Carrick's Ford 455 

Robert E. Lee 456 

Residence of Jefferson Davis .... 458 

The Stone Bridge 459 

Stonewall Jackson 460 

A Cannon Truck 462 

Hauling Cannon 463 

George B. McClellan 468 

Ulysses S. Grant 472 

Foote's Flotilla 474 

Grant's Head-quarters at Fort Donel- 

son 475 

The Merrimack attacking the Cumber- 
land 480 

Pittsburg Landing 483 

Pickets on Duty 484 

Building the Canal 487 

Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island . . 490 



XXll 



LIST OF n.LUSTRATIONS. 



Ram attacking Union Vessel below New 

Orleans . « 491 

Levee at New Orleans 492 

Quaker Gun 490 

War Balloon 500 

Barbara Frietchie TjOI 

Barbara Frietchie's House 502 

Harper's Ferry 504 

Antietani Battle-field 505 

Ruins of Fredericksburg 507 

Mules carrj'ing Wounded Men . . . 513 

Thirteen-inch Mortar 518 

Abatis 519 

A Louisiana Swamp 523 

Army Huts 524 

George G. Meade 527 

Drafting Wheel •. . . 530 

An Armored Lookout 534 

The Swamp Angel 536 

Lawrence, after Quantrell's Raid . . 539 
Lookout Mountain, and Chattanooga 

Valley 541 



Libby Prison 545 

Bullet-proof in Woods 546 

Union Envelope 547 

Grant's Head-quarters in the Wilderness 550 

Hand Litter 551 

Virginia Cavalryman ....... 554 

Foragers at work 555 

Philip H. Sheridan 555 

Sheridan's Head-quarters at Winchester 557 

David G. Farragut 563 

The Hartford 563 

William T. Sherman 565 

Leonidas Polk 565 

Summit of Kenesaw Mountain . . . 566 

Prison Pen at Millen 571 

Ruins at Charleston 573 

Redoubt and Ditch at Mobile .... 576 

Ruins at Selma 578 

Lee's Residence 579 

Andrew Johnson 583 

The National Capitol 583 

William H. Seward 584 



PART I. 



THE STORY OF THE COLONIES : FROM INFANCY TO 
INDEPENDENCE. 



THE 

HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



PART I. 

THE STORY OF THE COLONIES: FROM INFANCY TO INDE- 
PENDENCE. 

CHAPTER I. 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

Christopher Columbus. — The Route to the East. — Columbus wishes to sail Westward to 
India. — He applies to Portugal and Genoa. — Finall}' Aided by Isabella of Spain. — Sets 
Sail from Palos. — Incidents of Voyage. — Discovers West Indies. — Kiches of New 
World. — Second Voyage. 

TT is almost impossible to believe that less than four hundred 
-*- years ago this whole great country of ours was a vast unknown 
wilderness ; that the people in Europe and Asia did not even 
know that there was any land here, but supposed the Atlantic 
was a broad spreading ocean reaching from the shores of Europe 
into unknown space ; that, althougli there were schools, and books, 
and maps of the earth's surface, learned men in Europe and Asia 
were still disputing whether the earth were round or fiat, and no 
person in all their schools or. cities dreamed that these two great 
Continents, of North and South America, had any place in the 
earth's geography. It is difficult to believe, is it not ? Yet it is 
true. The land of the Western Hemisphere was a new discovery 
in the history of the globe. Hence it was called *' The New 
World," while Europe, Asia, and Africa, are called " The Old 
World." 

Many nations, and many different sailors, have claimed the honor 
of being the first to discover the Americas. Some of the North- 
men, both Icelanders and Norwegians, have traditions that their 
ships had sailed across the Atlantic, and some of their people set- 
tled here, and even built houses and forts in North America, hun- 
dreds of years ago. 

But the honor of sailing forth on purpose to find an unknown land, 



26 



THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of setting foot upon its shores, and then sailing back to Europe to 
tell the whole world that such a country did exist, and was really 
found, belongs only to one man. His name is celebrated in civilized 
countries of all languages and races. You must never forget it 
from this time forth. He was called CHRISTOPHER CoLUMBUS. 

Columbus was born in the year 1435, in the town of Genoa, 
Italy. He was an Italian sailor. In those days nearly all the towns 
on the Italian sea-coasts belonged to separate states, and were each 
famous for their commerce. So a great many of the boys born there 
were brought up to follow the sea. It was thought necessary that 
they should have some knowledge to fit them for that trade, there- 




A Northman's Vessel. 

fore when Columbus said he should like to be a sailor, his father, 
who was a poor man, either a wool-comber, or cloth-weaver by 
trade, sent him to school to study mathematics and geography (such 
as they knew in those days), and the rudiments of navigation. 
Columljus could not have had time to get a very thorough knowl- 
edge of these branches, however, for he was only fourteen years old 
when he began to go to sea. 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



27 



y 



As there were a good many ships engaged in the traffic be- 
tween different states and cities, especially those which bordered on 
the Mediterranean, it happened there was a good deal of quarreling 
and many battles. And as there were not so good laws regulating 
commerce as we have nowadays, there were many pirates con- 
stantly to be met with in sailing on the seas. Consequently the 
life of a sailor was full of daring and adventure, and he learned 
not only how to manage his ship, but to defend it, and to attack and 
do battle with other ships. 

Columbus went to sea with a warlike old uncle of his, and saw 
many an exciting sea-fight. Before he was twenty he had assisted 
in many such battles, and was at that age no inexperienced warrior. 
He was not a man of warlike spirit, however. On the contrary, 
he seems to have been a quiet, thoughtful, earnest man, full of 
noble and lofty enthusiasm. 

. In those days it was as if the air was full of discovery and adven- 
ture. People were all the time talking about new-found islands, 
and far-off countries, 
of wonderful eastern 
lands, and of new 
routes upon the sea. 
Kings took great in- 
terest in the pursuits 
of navigators, and 
often fitted out ships 
for voyages of explo- 
ration. The Portu- 
guese sovereigns,, es- 
pecially, had been 
noted for their gen- 
erosity to mariners, 
and to Portugal Co- 
lumbus came to live 
when he was a man 
thirty-five years old. 

In Lisbon, the cap- 
ital of Portugal, he 
met d, lady whom he 
loved and married. 
This lady's father had been a sailor too, and had left many maps 




Christopher Columbus. 



28 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and books relating to navigation, which came into the hands of 
Cohimbus. So he spent much time in poring over these books and 
charts, and tracing out new routes which might be sailed over. 

What Columbus, and all other navigators of his time most 
wished, was to discover a direct passage by sea to India and China, 
the rich eastern countries with which Europe traded for all kinds 
of precious stuffs and spices. The only known sea way to India was 
that found by sailing through the Mediterranean Sea to the Isthmus 
of Suez which joins Asia to Africa, and crossing that to embark 
upon the Red Sea, and thus sail into the Indian Ocean. You can 
see by looking on the map that this was not a convenient route, be- 
cause the ships had to be unloaded on one side of the Isthmus, 
which is seventy -five miles wide, and all the goods conveyed across 
it in caravans. 

In the imagination of the people in Europe, India was a country 
overflowing with riches. The sovereigns in Europe constantly heard 
rumors of a Avonderful Prester John, who ruled over a kingdom 
abounding in gold and precious stones, where the land streamed 
with honey and in which ran rivers of milk. There, too, they 
thought the Garden of Eden still existed, and they believed that 
there was the fountain which would make all who drank of it young 
and happy. 

Nearly two hundred years before the time of Columbus, a great 
traveler named Marco Polo who had lived in India and China, 
brought back glowing accounts of the magnificence of the Khan of 
Tartary, whose kingdom was in the east ; and of the great cities in 
China and Japan. 

Columbus heard and read all these things, and reasoned that if the 
world was round, by sailing west, one could certainly approach the 
shores of Asia. He also reasoned that there must be land bettveen 
Europe and Asia, which would be passed on the way westward. 
But he did not realize how large this globe was, nor that there was 
a great continent like North and South America on the other side of 
the Atlantic Ocean. 

Thinking over all the stories of travelers and sailors, which he 
had read and heard, it became his great desire to make a voyage 
westward ; and as he had no means of his own to fit out ships, he re- 
solved that he would lay his plans and wishes before some sovereign 
and ask his help in the mattei'. Good Prince Henr}^ of Portugal, 
who had done much for discovery, was dead. His name had made 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



29 



Portugal famous for enterprises on the sea, and Columbus went first 
to his nephew, King Alphonso, and laid his plans before him. But 




Alphonso was at war, and could not listen to him. Then he asked 
Genoa, his native city, to fit him out with ships, but it was too busy 



30 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



with commercial affairs, and thus lost the great honor which its son 
was able to confer on it. 

After a time Alphonso of Portugal died, and was succeeded by- 
John n. Columbus went to him with his plans. He listened atten- 
tively, but after hearing all Columbus had to say the king did a 
very base and treacherous thing. Columbus wanted to have a gen- 



inir;!nini!^nif:trfi 



1 't 




Columbus before the Council. 



erous reward, and high titles secured to him, in case he discovered 
this country, and King John did not wish to give him all he asked. 
He therefore obtained from Columbus all his plans, charts, and di- 
rections for sailing, and then privately fitted out a fleet and sent it 
in the track described. An expedition so basely conceived did not 
deserve success : the ships were wrecked and partly destroyed ; and 
on hearing of the king's dishonesty Columbus left liis court in dis- 
gust. Years after, when he had become a famous discoverer, King 
John wrote and offered him large inducements to return to Portu- 
gal, but Columbus refused to go. 

He resolved next to go to Spain. And that he might lose no 
opportunity of finding a royal patron he sent his brother Barthol- 
omew at the same time to England, to ask Henr^' VII. to fit him 
out on this strange new voyage. 

His wife was now dead and he set out for Spain on foot, with his 
little son Diego. He was so poor that he had, to ask help and shel- 
ter on the way. His hair, which had been gray at thirty -five, was 
now quite white, but he had a fine commanding presence, and even 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 31 

though clothed in rags, he never could have looked like a beggar. 
Imagine this man, who is now so famous in all history, standing 
one evening about dusk at the gate of a convent In Spain holding 
his son by the hand, while he supplicated the prior to give him food 
and lodging for the night. 

Fortunately the monk to whom he thus applied, was an uncom- 
mon man, and from him Columbus got aid and counsel. His name 
was Juan Perez, and he had formerly been the priest and father 
confessor of Isabella, the reigning Queen of Castile. Her husband 
was Ferdinand, King of Arragon, and by joining their dominions 
these two consorts ruled all Spain as one sovereign. Juan Perez 
advised Columbus to unfold his plans to them. 

But the sovereigns were impoverished by constant wars, and Fer- 
dinand, who was a cold dull man, was not much moved by the glow- 
ing projects of Columbus. He spent many years of vain hopes and 
sickening disappointments at the Spanish courts. At the last mo- 
ment, as he was leaving it forever, Isabella was inspired by one of 
her priests with a sudden enthusiasm, and declared that Columbus 
should sail even if she were obliged to pledge her own jewels to fit 
out his ships. Thus it happened that the New World owed its dis- 
covery to the generous ambition of a woman, and the untiring pa- 
tience and energy of a single man. 

With this aid and by furnishing himself one eighth of the sum 
required Columbus began his preparations. He made ready three 
ships with which to sail out upon this unknown waste of waters. 
Not such tall stout ships as you 
now see lying at our wharves, 
with their broad sails, huge 
wooden sides, and spacious 
decks. These were frail little 
crafts, not so large as those 
which now navigate our rivers 
and inland lakes. The first of 
these three vessels was com- 

111 /^ 1 1 • The Fleet of Columbus. 

manded by Columbus in per- 
son, and was called the Santa Maria. The second, called Pinfa, 
had for captain Alonzo Pinzon, a famous Spanish navigator. The 
third was the Nina, commanded by Vincente Yanez Pinzon, a 
brother of Alonzo. On Friday, the 3d of August, 1492, these 
three little ships set sail from the harbor of Palos, a sea-port in 
Southern Spain. 




32 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

After sailing several weeks in unknown waters, the sailors were 
dissatisfied and uneasy, and wished to go back. It required all the 
authority of Columbus to keep them from mutiny. At length he 
promised them, if he did not see land within three days, he would 
certainly turn back. And as if to reward him for his undaunted 
courage, signs of land began at once to appear. Great masses of 
green weeds drifted past the ship, which they knew never grew ex- 
cept near the shore ; and on the 12th of October a branch of red 
berries which the dullest sailor knew could grow only on land, was 
found floating on the water. On the 13th of October, 1492, they 
discovered and set foot on the island of San Salvador, one of the 
Bahama group, lying north of the West Indies. Shortly after, they 
discovered the island of Hayti, which Columbus called Hispaniola, 
meaning " Little Spain." 

After landing at Hayti and taking possession of it for the King 
and Queen of Spain, Columbus sailed from that island and touched 
the coast of Cuba, which he supposed to be part of a large continent. 
After this, without waiting to. explore farther, he went back to Spain 
to report to the two sovereigns what he had seen. 

Of course when Columbus reached Spain he was received with 
the highest honors. When he told of these green fertile islands 
thousands of miles west, of the inhabitants with straight black hair 
and copper colored skins, with head-dresses of feathers, and faces 
streaked with paint ; of the strange fruits and vegetables and trees 
they had seen ; all Spain was filled with wonder. Every one 
thought the western passage to Asia was now discovered. As yet 
nobody had any comprehension of the size of this new world which 
had been found, or indeed of the size of the globe at all. And from 
the belief that they had landed very near the Asiatic coast they 
named these new lands the West Indies and the inhabitants Indi- 
ans which name they bear to this day. 

As soon as possible Columbus was fitted out for a second voyage, 
and this time he had little trouble in getting sailors. Everybody 
wished to go to this wonderful land, which all believed was teeming 
with riches. Stories were told of pearls as big as robin's eggs that 
could be picked up on the shores, and of mountains where topaz 
and rubies, emeralds and diamonds, could be seen glittering among 
the rocks. It was difficult to keep any of the young men at home 
now, who had a taste for adventure. 

In September, 1493, Columbus set out on a second voyage. But 



OTHER VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 33 

now bis ships were crowded with adventurers who did not care 
whether their discoveries should benefit the human race. What 
they wished was a fortune, which they hoped to get by merely sail- 
ing after it. And they were constantly quarreling and bickering 
among themselves, and blaming Columbus if all did not turn out 
just as they wished it. 

He sailed first to the island of Hayti, and left a colony there 
which he named Hispaniola. Then he sailed on, touched at the 
islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico, and finally returning to Hispani- 
ola left his brother Bartholomew to take care of the new colony, 
while he returned to Spain again. 



CHAPTER n. 

OTHER VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 

Portugal finds an Eastern Passage to India. — Colupibus and the Egg. — Third Voyage. — 
Touches the Continent. — Sad Fate of Columbus. 

Portugal has not been unmindful of the success of Spain in dis- 
covering America. For Spain and Portugal were at this time the 
two greatest naval powers in Europe, and were jealous rivals. For 
years Portugal had been exploring the coast of Africa to try and 
find an eastern passage to Asia. In 1497 they were successful, and 
Vasco da Gam a found his way round the Cape of Good Hope, and 
sailing up the eastern coast of Africa reached India and China. 
That was a great triu\nph for Portugal, and almost matched the 
triumph of Spain in her discoveries. Three years before Vasco da 
Gama's success, Spain and Portugal had divided the globe between 
themselves. They drew up an agreement by which Portugal was 
to have all the ocean on the east side of a line drawn north and 
south 1,200 miles west of the Cape Verd Islands, and Spain was 
to have all tvest of this line. It did not seem to occur to them 
that any one had any right to the ocean but themselves. 

In the mean time when Columbus returned to Spain from his sec- 
ond voyage he found the court filled with fault-finders who were 
underrating the value of his discoveries. They claimed that other 
men, native Spaniards, were making rich voyages. " Why should so 
much power and so many rewards be given to this foreigner," they 
grumbled, " when so many of our nation can do as much as he ?" 



34 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



There is a story told that on one occasion Columbus came upon 
a group of these enemies in the palace. He asked them, as a merry 
jest, to stand an egg on its end, upon the table. Everybody tried, 
but like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, all the king's 
men could not make the egg stand. 

Then Columbus took it and with a delicate blow he broke the 
shell a little so the egg would sit upright. 
" Ah, that is easy enough," every one cried. 

" When I have shown you how," answered Columbus meaningly. 
It was easy enough for others to sail west and find new countries, 
after one man had inspired the nation with a belief in unknown 
lands, and led the way there in his frail ships. 

For the third time, in May, 1498, he embarked for America. 
This time he went to South America and explored the coast. He 
entered the Orinoco River and fancied he had made a great discovery 
there. In those days every one believed that the Garden of Eden 
— " the earthly Paradise " — still flourished in all its beauty. Co- 
lumbus thought he had drawn near it, and that the Orinoco was the 
Gihon which was one of the boundaries of Eden. 

When Columbus again landed at Hispaniola he found mischief 
had been plotted in his absence. His enemies there who wanted to 
rule the colony, had sent back to Spain such stories of his cruelty 
and tyranny, and desire for power, that the King of Spain had sent 
an officer named Francis de Bobadilla to inquire into these reports, 
and see if Columbus were guilty. The first thing this brutal fellow 
did after getting there, was to load Columbus with irons and send 
him back to Spain. 

After he went on board, the officers of the ship which was to take 
him home were ashamed of the conduct of Bobadilla, and wished to 
take off his fetters. But Columbus would 
not have them removed. He would thus pre- 
sent himself to his sovereigns. An old Span- 
ish historian who tells his story, tells us that 
when the irons were put on him he said, 
" Thus the world rewards those who serve it ; 
this is the recompense men give to those who 
trust in them. Have the utmost endeavors of 
my services ended in this ? Have all my la- 
''^''^"^' bors and sufferings deserved no more ? Let 

me be buried in these irons to show that Grod alone knows how to 




NAMING OF AMERICA, AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. 



35 



reward and bestow favors, of which He doth never repent ; for the 
world pays in words and promises and at last deceives and lies." 

And thongh the king and queen took off his chains and restored 
him to favor, the iron had entered his soul and he was never him- 
self again. 

He made one more voyage in 1502. This time he went into the 
Gulf of Mexico and explored the Isthmus of Darien, still hoping to 
find the long sought passage westward. But his search was vain. 
He planted a little colony on the coast of Panama, and then returned 
to Spain to die. His patroness, Queen Isabella, was now dead. The 
cold-hearted King Ferdinand neglected him. He lingered a few 
months in poverty and obscurity, and died in 1506, almost broken- 
hearted. Seven years after, the ungrateful king, for very shame 
at his neglect, put him up a monument with the inscription, " To 
Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world." " Words," says 
Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, in his life of his dear father, 
" words which we do well to mark, because the like cannot be found 
among either ancients or moderns." 

So ended the life of one of the" greatest men wlio is celebrated in 
history. 



CHAPTER III. 

NAMING OF AMERICA, AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. 

Amerigo Vespucci. — The Brothers Pinzoii. — Gulf of the Three Brothers. — Florida discov- 
ered. — Fountain of Immortal Youth. 

In studying the history of discovery, we find that it is common 
to name different bodies of land and water after the men who first 
explored them ; and it has often been a matter of wonder that this 
continent did not receive its name from 
the great navigator who discovered it. 
It would seem only a merited honor for 
so great a service to the world. 

While Columbus was making ready 
to go on one of his voyages he met an 
Italian merchant in the city of Seville, 
who was interested in discovery, al- 
though he was not himself a sailor. 
This man's name was Amerigo Ves- 
pucci. He was a man of good birth, 
well educated, and curious to hear all Amerigo vespucci. 




36 STORY OF- OUR COUNTRY. 

about the strange lands across the ocean. In 1499 he joined an 
expedition from Portugal, going to explore part of the coast of South 
America. On his return he published an account of this voyage, 
and of others that he afterwards made ; and these voyages, written 
in Latin, were printed in Germany early in the sixteenth century. 
And because these printed accounts of the discovery of a new world 
circulated from one place to another, with his name attached to 
them, tliis country began to be called " the land of Amerigo (or 
Americus in the Latin form), and after a while changed to Amer- 
ica. I do not believe that Vespucci himself intended to take from 
Columbus the honor of naming the continent. Indeed, it was not 
until after the death of both that the land began to be generally 
known as America. 

But it is often regretted that the New World Columbus had dis- 
covered did not bear his name. We often hear the United States 
called Columbia. One of our national songs is " Hail Columbia." 
And all over the country there are many cities and towns named for 
him. 

Before the death of Columbus a number of the companions who 
had shared with him the honor of his first voyage, had either joined 
other expeditions, or had fitted out ships at their own expense, or 
that of any wealthy patron who would help them, and set out on 
voyages to the west. 

The most noted of these were the brothers Alonzo, Vincente 
Yanez, and Francisco Pinzon. You remember the two former each 
commanded a vessel in the first voyage of Columbus. Alonzo, the 
oldest brother, had aided him in obtaining a crew and in bearbig an 
eighth part of the expense of this voyage. 

The Pinzons were all daring and expert sailors. In the year 
1500, Vincente Yanez, who commanded four ships, led them over 
the equator southward to the coast of Brazil, and then into the 
mouth of the River Amazon, the largest river in the world. Com- 
ing back to Spain, he fell among hurricanes and dreadful tempests 
which destroyed two of his ships. His fortune was nearly all ven- 
tured in this enterprise, and this voyage almost ruined him. After- 
wards, in 1506 and 1508, he was among those who were seekiug the 
western passage to Asia. In the same year in which Pinzon dis- 
covered the Amazon, the Gulf of St. Lawrence was first explored. 
Caspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, was the first who entered this gulf. 
He sailed past Canada and landed at Labrador. Here he took 
away some Indians and carried them to Portugal as slaves. He 



NAMING OF AMERICA, AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. 37 

first named the coast Labrador. Cortereal returned on a second 
voyage, and entering tlie Gulf never came out again. His second 
brother, who heard of his loss from the ships that accompanied him, 
set out in search of him. He too went into the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence never to be heard of any more. A third brother, also in the 
service of Portugal, wished to go after his kinsmen, but the king re- 
fused him permission, saying, '' he could not afford to lose so many 
brave sailors in one place." So he did not go. But for years 
ij^ter, the place was known as the '' Gulf of the Three Bi'othei'S.'''' 

The principal object which impelled so many to set out on these 
voyages was the desire for gold. Tlie belief in the riches of this 
new country was so great, that ships without number were sent to 
bring back whatever of value they could find. When they could 
not find gold or jewels, they sometimes brought back ship-loads of 
Indians to serve as slaves. Very soon they began to load their 
ships with the fruits of the country, with mahogany wood or other 
rare woods, and aught else that was marketable in Europe. A few 
men of noble minds, like Columbus, considered the great benefit it 
would bring to their posterity if they found new lands and opened 
up a new route to Asia, but most of these adventurers tliought only 
of paltry gain to themselves. 

Juan Ponce de Leon was one of the captains who had sailed with 
Columbus in his second voyage of discovery from Spain. Some 
time after this he was made Governor of Porto Rico, one of the 
West India Islands, and went there to reside. But just as he was 
comfortably settled in his governorship, he was attacked by two 
very serious foes to his happiness and power. These enemies were 
sickness and old age. 

Now Ponce de Leon had heard a legend of a fountain in some un- 
known region whose waters, leaping up to the sun, gave everlasting 
youth and health to whoever drank of them. These waters were 
called, " The Fountain of Immortal Youths 

Poor De Leon, in failing health and strength, — nearly seventy 
years old, his hair and beard quite white with age, his form 
bowed and stooping, — remembered this legend, and made up his 
mind to seek for this wonderful fountain. The Spaniards were 
quite ready to believe everything romantic and magical was situated 
in this strange country, which seemed to them so full of wonders. 
And many others besides Ponce de Leon readily believed that 
somewhere in its borders they should find this enchanted fountain. 



38 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

With this hope he set out from Porto Rico in the spring time of 
the year 1512, with three ships and a goodly company of men. 
They came in sight of land on a beautiful Sunday morning. It was 
Palm Sunday, when according to the custom of the Church, every 
man, woman, and child at home in Spain was carrying in his hand 
as he came out from worship a little green branch, in remembrance 
of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Looking on this new found land, 
which was covered with greenness and beauty to the very water's 
edge, and remembering what Sunday it was, De Leon named th^ 
new country Florida, which means " The Land of Flotvers.'''' 

Of course all their hopes were raised by the sight. They thought 
a land which seemed to blossom so beautifully without any one to 
nurture it, could only be watered by the rills from the immortal 
fountain. Landing, they took possession of it in the name of the 
King of Castile. 

Then his men began searching far and wide for the waters which 
should restore Ponce de Leon's youth. After some time spent in 
this search, the Indians began to grow hostile. The Spaniards never 
knew how to treat them in such a way as to gain their good-will 
and friendship. At length De Leon concluded he would leave the 
main-land, and go in search of a wonderful island Avhich the Indians 
described, and which he felt sure contained the fountain. In pur- 
suit of this, he touched the Balramas and various other islands, 
never ceasing in his search. So long he sought, and so vainly, that 
his resolution wore out the robust strength even of his hardy crew. 
But the magic waters were never found. At length, feeble and 
worn out in body, he was borne back to his ships, and they sailed to 
Porto Rico. Even then his faith did not desert him. Unable to go 
farther himself, he left one of his ships to continue the search. But 
this ship, after discovering the island of Biniini, forty leagues west 
of the Bahamas, came back to Porto Rico also, reporting that no 
fountain had been^ seen, and no traces of it could be discovered. 

On sending to Spain an account of this new found land of Flor- 
ida, Ponce de Leon was made governor there on condition that he 
would plant a colony. In 1513 he went with two ship-loads of peo- 
ple and provisions, and materials for building a fort. But the In- 
dians, who began to distrust the Spaniards and to grow jealous of 
their power, tried to prevent the landing of De Leon, and in the 
fight he was badly wounded. He was carried back to Porto Rico 
and soon died of his hurts. Let us hope he has long since discov- 
ered i\\& fountain of immortal youth. 



FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC. 

Spanish Colonies. — Vasco Nunez de Balboa. — Avarice of Spaniards. — The Indians lead 
Balboa in Sight of the Land of Gold. — The South Sea. 

You remember I told you of a little colony which Columbus had 
left on the continent of North America when he explored the Gulf 
of Mexico in his last voyage. This colony had not been successful, 
and one or two later attempts had been made to plant a colony 
there without result. The Spaniards had i^ow settled on all the 
large West India Islands, and had several thriving towns, among 
which Avas Hispaniola, the colony first planted by Columbus. In 
1511, Vasco Nunez de Balboa joined an expedition which had come 
fi"om Spain, and stopped at Hispaniola, where he was residing. 
This company sailed to the coast of Darien, and found the last col- 
ony" which had been sent there, in ruins, and no white man alive. 
Through the influence of Balboa they built another town, and called 
it Santa IVIaria de Antigua. This was the first j^eTmanent colony ever 
founded on the American continent. Balboa was made its governor, 
and continued to reside there. 

He was very good to the natives. The poor creatures had not 
been used to see a Spaniard so just, or so disposed to keep peace 
with them, and they met his offers of friendship in the same spirit. 
When they found his great desire was for gold, one of the chiefs 
sent him a large box of that precious metal. This was not the best 
thing for the peace of the colony, for all the Spaniards were mad 
after gold, and quarreled over it, when they got any, like so many 
fierce dogs. This time, when Balboa had got out the scales and 
was weighing it as evenly as he could, the rest were snarling and 
growling around him about their shares. 

The son of the chief, a tall athletic Indian, who had brought 
them the gold, stood looking on during the division. As the quarrel 
grew hotter and hotter, he scornfully overturned with his foot the 
balance in which they were weighing the treasure, and said vehe- 
mently : — 

" Is it possible you should value so much a thing that so little 
deserves your esteem ; that you should leave the repose of your 
houses, and pass so many seas, exposed to such dangers, to trouble 



40 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



those who live quiet in their own land ? Have some shame, Chris- 
tians, and do not desire these things ; but if you are resolved to seek 
gold, I will show you a country where you can satisfy yourselves." ^ 
Of course these words excited the curiosity of Balboa, and he 
gave the young chief no rest till he should show him this great gold 
country'. 

Accordingly, they started, one morning in September, 1513, for 
the mountain-ridge which lay not far west of the colony. Bal- 
boa with a party of his men, and the chief with a band of natives. 
The Spaniards wore armor of glittering plates of steel, with swords 
at their sides, and the clumsy muskets which they carried in those 
days over their sholilders ; while the Indians had huge bows and 
arrows, stone and wooden chibs, as weapons. 

Just before they reached the top of the wooded ridge from which 
the Indians said they would see two oceans, Balboa bade his com- 
panions pause that he might climb the steep alone, and so be the 
first Spaniard who should look upon the promised sea. 

Obediently remaining, they left him to climb the last few yards 
without them. In a few moments more he gained the summit, and 
looking southward, beheld the broad expanse, — 
the waters of the long dreamed of " South Sea," 
or Pacific Ocean, which lay, smiling and blue, 
almost at his feet. Standing there, he could see 
both oceans, only a few miles apart. 

The grand sight overcame him, and the Span- 
ish warrior, bronzed with conflict with seas and 
storms, hardened with exposure and contact with 
many dangers, fell prone on the earth and wetted 
it with his tears. Then calling to his soldiers, 
he commenced descending toward the new found 
Balboa. ocean. When he reached the shore, he walked 

knee-deep into the waters, and waving above them his cross-hilted 
sword, he took possession of the ocean "■ in the name of God, for 
the use of the sovereign majesty of Spain." 

The land of great riches which the Indians had pointed out to 

Balboa from the heights of Darien, was the kingdom of Peru in 

South America, which was afterwards conquered by Francis Pizarro. 

Since I have said so much to you about the search after a western 

1 These are rather dignified words on the part of the young Indian, and are put into his 
mouth by the Spanish monlv Qvalle, wlio tells the story of Balboa's discovery. 




FIKST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 41 

route to Asia, I am going to make a brief digression, to tell you how 
this search was ended, and give you an account of the first voyage 
ai'ound the world. 



CHAPTER V. 

FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. 

Magellan at Patagonia. — The First Potatoes eaten by Europeans. — The Straits of Magellan. — 
Death of the Great Navigator. — Return of the Last Sliip to Spain. 

Fernando Magalhaens — or, as we call him, Magellan — set 
sail from Spain in September, 1519. Like Columbus, the Pinzons, 
and so many other daring navigators, he wished to find the western 
passage to Asia. 

He had been one of those who had sailed around the Cape of Good 
Hope, and tested the truth that there was an eastern route to India. 
Then he came back to petition Charles V., Emperor of Germany and 
King of Spain, to fit him out for a western voyage. 

King Charles heard him with favor, gave him five ships, two hun- 
dred and thirty-four men, and provisions for two years. That was 
a generous fitting out, in days when sovereigns were not over liberal 
to the brave men who risked life for their glory and profit. 

Thus in September Magellan sailed. He reached South America, 
and sailed in and out the rivers on the coast of Brazil, hoping to 'find 
there a channel to the " South Sea." When he had exhausted this 
hope, he sailed along the coast of Patagonia, stopping occasionally, 
and landing on the shores. Here the Spaniards saw a vegetable 
unknown before. It was almost round, and had a brown skin. The 
natives called them " batatas " or ^ patatas," and " they looked like 
turnips, and tasted like chestnuts," so the old historian of the voyage 
tells us. The sailors ate them eagerly without cooking them. Do 
you guess what they were ? Why, potatoes, the commonest vegeta- 
ble that grows, but unknown then to the civilized world. 

The Patagonians looked like a race of giants to the Spaniards. 
They were very tall, the old historians say, ten or twelve feet high, 
but I fancy that is exaggerated. Magellan got two on board his ship 
and carried them away, they crying loudly on their god Setebos to 
rescue them. If you read Shakespeare's play, " The Tempest," you 
will find that Setebos is also the god of Caliban. Probably Shake- 



42 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

speare had been reading Magellan's voj^age just before he wrote his 
play. 

The natives could not understand how the white men could be 
so small and sail such large boats. They had an original idea about 
the vessels. They believed the boats were the babies of the large 
ship, and called the latter the " mother-canoes " and her boats the 
little ones. 

When Magellan reached the Straits which now bear his name, one 
of his vessels was lost, and another had deserted. This left him 
with onl}^ three ships. Slowly and cautiously feeling their way at 
every step, they entered the crooked, winding straits. It was cold 
and stormy. Above their heads, taller many times than the masts, 
rose the icy peaks of Terra del Fuego, glittering and pitiless. The 
crew began to mutiny, but Magellan resolutely put them down. " Do 
/ cry because I am cold and hungry?" he asked the murmurers. 
" Let a man dare to speak of his suffering and he dies at once." 

When at length they came out upon the sea that Balboa had 
seen eight years before from Darien, the}^ all forgot their miseries. 
Though their mouths were so swollen from scurvy that they could 
not chew their food, they cried aloud for joy. This calm, placid 
ocean, so free from storms, Magellan called "" Pacific," and it bears 
the name to this day. 

The ships sailed southward toward warmer latitudes, but their 
sufferings had only just began. Provisions failed. They ate their 
shoe leather and their clothing. They chewed sawdust and gnawed 
pieces of wood. They bargained for rats, which some lucky ones 
caught in the hold, and sold as high as a ducat apiece. At length 
they reached some of the South Sea islands and got rehef. 

But Magellan, trying to make Christians of the people on the 
Philippine Islands, by fighting those whom he could not convert, 
was killed. His ships were left without their rash but brave com- 
mander. One after the other was lost, till only one ship remained. 
This was commanded by Sebastian del Cano. 

The lonely vessel went on, sailing past Borneo, the Cape of Good 
Hope, and up the African coast, till it reached Spain. In September, 
1522, just three years from their first setting out, they returned. Of 
their two hundred and thirty-four men, they brought back eighteen. 
So ended the first voyage around the globe, one of the most 
remarkable in all the history of navigation. From this time forth 
the practicabiHty of reaching Asia by sailing west was proved be- 
yond a doubt. 



DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 43 

CHAPTER VI. 

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

Cortez and Pizarro. — Story of Narvaez. — Cabe^a de Vaca crosses the Continent. — Ferdinand 
de Soto. — Grand Army of De Soto. — Story of John Ortiz. — The Great Mississippi. — 
Burial of De Soto. — Return of his Army. 

After Balboa had established his colony on the Isthmus of 
Darien all the coasts thereabout were explored, and other settlements 
made on the Gulf of Mexico. Hernando Cortez, a brave but cruel 
Spaniard, went to Mexico, and found great quantities of gold and 
silver there. He oppressed the helpless natives, and wrested from 
them their treasures, treating them in the most unjust and cruel 
manner. Francis Pizarro followed the example of Cortez, in Peru. 
They both acquired great wealth, and the fame of their success went 
all over Spain, and fired other Spanish adventurers with the desire 
of making similar conquests. 

All these Spanish conquerors were d-evout Roman Catholics, and 
had one passion almost as strong as their love for gold, — this was 
their desire to convert the natives to Christianity. While they 
plundered and pillaged them, toolc their goods, burnt their cities, 
destroyed their crops, and left these poor people to starve, they 
were all the time setting up the cross with the image of the crucified 
Jesus upon it and forcing them to adore it. What sort of a religion 
the poor natives thought it was which seemed to justify so much 
bloodshed and plunder, I do not know ; but I fancy they did not 
make very sincere Christians, who were driven to religion by the 
point of the sword. 

After the news of the success of Cortez and the great wealth he 
was gaining in Mexico, the adventurers remembered the countr}^ of 
Florida which Ponce de Leon had visited. It was reported that 
Florida was quite as rich in gold as Me:;fico ; and in 1527 a naviga- 
tor, named Pamphilo de Narvaez, got a grant of Florida from Charles 
V. of Spain, and sailed thither. 

He landed with his men on the eastern coast of the long penin- 
sula of Florida. When they went on shore they found the Indians 
disposed to be quite friendly. They told the Spaniards stories of 
gold which could be found in the province of Apalache, which was 
to the north of them. Narvaez went on to Apalache. But the na- 
tives began to dislike and distrust the Spaniards more and more as 



44 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they marched into the heart of their country, and finally became 
bold enough to oppose their ill-treatment of them. They attacked 
Narvaez, killed many of his men, and refused to furnish him with 
grain or any kind of food. Then the Spaniards suffered dreadfully. 
They killed their horses and ate them, living all the time in constant 
fear lest the Indians should come upon them in their weakened 
state, and cutting them off from the sea leave them to perisli of 
hunger. In their desperation they resolved to build ships where 
they were, on the coast of the province of Apalache, which was in 
the northern part of Florida, and from thence put to sea. 

But they had nothing of which to build ships, neither timber, 
nor iron, nor cloth for sails, nor rope for rigging. Lacking all these 
things, they yet contrived to construct five hrigantines, which seem 
to have been a kind of large boat with sails, capable of holding 
forty or fifty men. How they accomplished this is wonderful to 
relate. 

From the iron in their armor, their horses' trappings, and their 
stirrups, they forged saws, hammers, axes, and other needed tools. 
They actually made their spurs into nails, and their swords into saws 
and knives. They cut down trees, and made timber for their boats. 
They wove ropes from the hair of the horses which they had killed 
for food. They sewed all their shirts and other linen up into sails, 
and after such terrible labors as it amazes one to think of, their five 
brigantines were completed and they went on board. 

In a short time a great storm came up, and the boat in which 
Narvaez sailed was lost and never heard of again. 

One of these five brigantines was commanded by a daring fellow 
named Cabega de Vaca, and he alone succeeded in reaching the 
main-land with his crew. On their way they passed the mouth of 
a great river which poured into the sea with such force that it car- 
ried earth and roots and branches of trees with it. This was prob- 
ably the first time the Mississippi River was ever seen by a white 
man. 

After landing somewhere on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 
Cabe^a de Vaca and his companions wandered into the wilderness 
which lay all about them. They were supposed to be utterly lost 
by all who remembered them, when, eight years after, Cabe9a and 
thi'ee companions turned up on the Pacific coast of Mexico in a 
Spanish settlement there called Culiacan. They had traveled across 
the continent, making friends with the Indians, and living among 




DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 45 

them as one of the tribe ; till at last, long bearded and long haired, 
looking more like savages than white men, they found their way to 
this town on the Pacific. 

When Pizarro was in Peru, he had with him, in his army, a 
captain named Ferdinand de Soto, who had grown 
very rich from spoils taken from the Peruvians. 
About the year 1535 he was on a visit to Spain, 
and met there Cabe^a de Vaca, who had just come 
back from America after his long sojourn in the 
wilderness. De Vaca told De Soto many stories of 
this strange country, and its wonders, and especially ^'~*'^ 

PI 1111 IP 111 11 , Ferdinand de Soto. 

or the reports he had heard, oi gold that could be 
found there. De Soto was very ambitious to earn the glories of 
conquest in some rich land, as Cortez and Pizarro had done in Mex- 
ico and Peru. After talking with De Vaca he resolved to fit out 
ships and go to conquer Florida. He was rich, so that he easily 
bought the governorship of Florida of the King of S^jain, and sailed 
off in the track of Narvaez and De Leon. 

His ships anchored in the Bay of Espirito Santo (Bay of the 
Holy Spirit) on the 28th of IVIay, 1539. He had a large fleet, 
nine vessels in all, and his soldiers numbered seven hundred men, 
most of them mounted on horses. De Soto landed with his men, 
dressed in full armor, which soldiers all wore in expeditions of 
war. They took on shore a great many horses and swine. These 
were the first horses and pigs brought to North America. There 
were no such animals on this continent, and De Soto first intro- 
duced them. Besides all the men and animals, they carried on 
shore provisions and supplies of all kinds. They had even chains 
with Avhich to chain the natives whom they should take prisoners, 
so you can see they did not come with the intention of inducing the 
Indians to be their friends. After landing, De Soto sent back part 
of the ships to Cuba to return with more provisions, and left the 
rest in the bay to guard it in case they wished to come back to the 
ships. 

Then they began their march inland. The men in their armor, 
spurred and booted, the horses with heavy glittering trappings, 
the loads of supplies, droves of animals, — all to push their way 
through the thick everglades, the trackless sAvamps, which abound 
in Florida even to this day. It was a weary journey before they 
came in sight of land which looked as if it were habitable. When 



46 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they emerged from the swamps and forests upon a plain planted 
with grain, they saw a party of some ten or twelve Indians running 
toward them. They were going to fire upon and kill them, when to 
their surprise one of these natives ran before the others and throw- 
ing up his arms to stop the attack, called out in good Spanish, — 

" Good sirs, I am a Christian. Slay me not, nor these Indians, 
who have saved my life." 

At this address all the troop of De Soto stopped in much amaze- 
ment to hear their own language in these wilds. Being questioned, 
the stranger told them this story : — 

He said that his name was John Ortiz, and he was a true-born 
Spaniard. He had been one of the sailors of Pamphilo de Narvaez, 
when he came to these coasts twelve years before to explore Florida. 
He was one of the few who had escaped death in this expedition. 
When after long hardships he had got back to Cuba, the wife of 
Narvaez was fitting out ships to seek after her husband. John 
Ortiz sailed in this expedition. When they reached the coast of 
Florida he went on shore with some of his companions in a ship's 
boat. Near that part of the bay where Narvaez first landed, they 
saw a stick set up in form of a cross, and thought it might have 
been set up by him as a token that he had escaped from shipwreck. 

Just then some Indians who appeared friendly beckoned them to 
land. John Ortiz and one other went on shore. But no sooner 
had they landed than these Indiaiis attacked them, slew his compan- 
ion, and wounded Ortiz, while the frightened boat's crew hastened 
back to the ship believing them both slain. They would have 
killed Ortiz, but that the daughter of the chief begged for his life. 
This one white man alone, she urged, could do no harm, and he 
might be useful to them. So Ucita — this was the name of the 
chief — saved the Spaniard's life at the pleading of his daughter. 

After this Ortiz lived for some time with this tribe. He was 
given the strange office of guarding the temple where the Indians 
were in the habit of placing the bodies of those who had died. The 
poor Spaniard had many bloody encounters with the wolves, who 
came by night to seize the bodies which were kept there. 

At length the daughter of Ucita, the Indian princess who had at 
first befriended liim, came secretly and told him her tribe again had 
designs upon his life, and advised him to flee to the kingdom of ^lo- 
coco, who was a chief not far distant. 

Mococo received him with open arms, and for several years Ortiz 



DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 47 

had lived as one of his tribe. But this good king had promised that 
if the Spaniards ever came thither, John Ortiz should go away freely 
with them. 

After hearing this story of Ortiz, the Spaniards had an interview 
with Mococo, who not only entertained De Soto well, but gave him 
provisions to take with him, and sent John Ortiz rejoicing away 
with his companions. 

De Soto continued his march. It was a very crooked route he 
took, and was changed and directed by the natural obstacles or ad- 
vantages in this wild country through which they went. 

John Ortiz was a great addition to them, for he knew many In- 
dian languages, and acted as guide and interpreter. The country 
was divided into kingdoms or provinces, each with a different ruler. 
They were not very large, for De Soto passed through a good 
many on his march to the Mississippi River. Their towns were 
often walled about. The walls were made about breast high, of posts 
thrust into the ground, and rails laid across from one to the other, 
like rail-fence. Then they were filled with clay, which hardened in 
the sun. These primitive walls had loop-holes for firing arrows. 
But these rude defenses protected the natives but little against 
Spanish warfare, and wherever the white man went he left havoc 
in his track. 

Often the Indians met them in kindness, gave them food, and es- 
corted them on their way, but generally there was much bloodshed 
before the last of De Soto's troops left their boundaries. 

Once they passed through a province ruled over by a woman. 
It was a beautiful country, in what is now Alabama. She treated 
them most graciously, and gave them food and buffalo skins. 

Now they began to hear rumors of a great river in front of them, 
— a river of great riches and beauty, whose waters were yellow 
with gold. It was more than a year since De Soto first landed on 
the coast of Florida. He had lost many men, and very little gold 
had yet rewarded his labors. So he pushed impatiently on toward 
this wonderful river. 

One spring morning in 1541, two years from the time they first 
landed on the coast of the New World, they halted on the banks of 
the Mississippi River. They were weary and worn and travel- 
stained ; the brightness was gone from their armor, and the trap- 
pings of the horses no longer glittered in the sun. But they were 
still hopeful and resolute and courageous. 



48 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The place where they touched the river was the point where the 
Arkansas River unites with the great father of waters. You can im- 
agine it looked very different to the Spaniards from what it looks 
to-day. Now steamboats ply up and down day and night, and 
towns and cities dot its banks. Then the great river, undisturbed 
by boats or ships, rushed furiovisly on to the sea. These are the 
words in which one of De Soto's men tells how it looked that day : — 

" The river was almost half a league broad. If a man stood still 
on the other side, it could* not be discerned if he were a man or no. 
The water was of great depth and of a strong current, always 
muddy, and there came down continually many trees and timber, 
which the force of the water and the stream brought down." 

For a year they remained at this part of the river. In that time 
De Soto crossed and recrossed on rude boats which they built, and 
made excursions into the interior of the country west of the river. 
He spent one winter among what are now known as the Ozark 
Mountains, near the great lead region of southwestern JNIissouri. 
But they were tired of adventure, and longed eagerly to get to the 
sea. 

Yet it seemed almost madness to think of trusting themselves to 
this terrible swift current with such rafts and boats as they had 
made to cross it ; and it was as hopeless to think of going back 
through the trackless wilds through which they had come, and 
where they had left enemies all over their pathway. Their hearts 
began to fail. Finally De Soto, weary with devising hopeless plans, 
and heart-sick with disappointment, fell into a fever and died. 

The Spaniards were afraid that the Indians would discover the 
loss of their leader, whom they had told the savages was a child of 
the sun, and could not die. They hid his body three days. Then 
they dug a grave under cover of a hut, but seeing some Indians look- 
ing at the place where the earth had been upturned, they secretly 
took it up in the night, and wrapping it in the Spanish mantle De 
Soto had been used to wear, they made it heavy with sand and 
threw it into the Mississippi. There, after many wanderings, he 
slept in peace at the bottom of the mighty river he had found. 

After this the desire to get upon the open sea, and the prospect 
of getting back to Spain, inspired them to great exertions. The 
labors of Narvaez were repeated by them. They cut timber, forged 
iron, and built ships or brigantines to get to sea. 

This took them nearly a year, and it was in July, 1543, before 
they were ready to go on board. 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS. 49 

Their departure showed the same cruelty to the Indians which 
had marked all their conduct to them. They stripped the coun- 
try around of all their corn and provisions, and when they set out 
they were so abundantly provided that they cast corn before their 
hogs which the animals could not eat because they were already so 
full, while the natives, robbed of the food they had planted, fam- 
ished and despairing, crowded the shores and implored that some 
of their store should be given back. Some of the Spaniards, more 
tender-hearted than others, cast back a small portion, but many 
laughed in their faces, and threw back jeers at their distress as the 
boats glided down the river. 

After much perilous sailing they reached the Spanish settlement 
of Panuco on the Gulf of Mexico, and were received with great 
hospitality by the colonists there. They returned to Spain shortly 
after, and thus ended the third expedition into Florida. It is 
hardly possible to say which of these seems most disastrous to the 
captain who commanded it. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS. 

Henry VH. of England. — Sebastian Cabot discovers North America. — The French King sends 
Ships to America. — Verrazano comes to New York. — Voyages of Jacques Cartier to Can- 
ada. — His Ship lost in the St. Lawrence. 

When the other nations of Europe beheld how rich Spain and 
Portugal were growing from the spoils of the new lands they were 
sharing between them, they were naturally anxious to share also in 
the profits of discovery. Almost as soon as Columbus returned 
from his first voyage Henry VII. of England was busily fitting out 
ships for exploration. 

I have told you before that Columbus sent his brother Barthol- 
omew to England at the time that he went to Spain. Bartholomew 
had an adventurous journey ; fell among thieves, lost his money, 
and reached England very ragged and poor. It was a long time 
before he could get decent clothes in which to be presented at court, 
and he worked hard at map-making in London for money to keep 
himself from starvation. 

It is claimed by English writers of this period that Henry VII. 
4 




50 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

intended to accept the proposition of Columbus and fit him out on 
the expedition. If this were so he was so slow and hesitating in his 
decision that Columbus had sailed from Spain and discovered Amer- 
ica before Henry had fairly made up his mind. When the news uf 
the discovery came to his ears, he set to work briskly and sent out 
an expedition, commanded by John and Sebastian Cabot, a fating 
and son, who were living in Bristol, Eng- 
land, although they were natives of* Venice. 
Sebastian Cabot was very young, probably 
only eighteen years old, but he seems to 
have been the ruling spirit of the voyage, 
and was one of the greatest navigators the 
world has ever known. 

They sailed almost due west, and touched 
Sebastian Cabot. tlie coutiueut of Nortli Amcrica at Labra- 

dor, before Columbus had found the main-land. The Cabots, there- 
fore, were really the first Europeans who landed on these shores. 
They took possession in the name of England, and sailed northward 
to find a way farther west. But the land everywhere presented a 
firm barrier to their ships. 

'' I found the land ranne all along to the north, which was to mee 
a great displeasure," wrote Sebastian, in his description of the voy- 
age. 

See how all these navigators in their search after the rich Indies, 
at first scorned this poor continent of ours which has turned out to 
be worth a dozen Indies, in everything that really makes the world 
rich. 

After Sebastian Cabot returned to England, his father died, and 
he had sole command of the expeditions which followed. He de- 
voted the greater part of his life to searching after the long wished 
for western passage to Asia ; made several voyages to the coast of 
South America, under the auspices of Spain, and finally went back 
to England and spent his later years in making charts and maps. 
He lived up to the time of Queen Elizabeth of England, and when a 
very old man, nearly eighty, he assisted in fitting out some ships to 
seek for a northwest passage to the Pacific, went to a parting ban- 
quet on the ship, and danced there like a youth of twenty. 

From this discovery of John and Sebastian Cabot, England laid 
claim to the northern part of the New World near Labrador ; Spain 
claimed Peru and Mexico and all the Orinoco River region ; and 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS. 51 

Portugal claimed Patagonia and Brazil, on account of Magellan's 
voyage there. 

Francis I. was at this time king of France. He had pressing 
affairs on his hands, — a kingdom beset with civil j^^^ 
war and foreign war. But in spite of his anxieties t^jM 
he felt very jealous of the possessions his brother M^-'Mm 
kings of Spain, Portugal, and England, were get- wLm^ ^ 
ting on the new continent. When he heard they ^jS^^^^pN 
had divided the new countries across the sea, he /^^mji^^^r'^ 
cried out, " I should like to see the clause in Adam's ' '_ /, " 
will which gives them all America." verrazano. 

In 1524 he sent Captain Juan Verrazano to see if he could find 
a corner where France might gain a foothold on this continent. 
Verrazano sailed with four ships, but nearly all were disabled early 
in the voyage, and he finally crossed with only one vessel, — the 
Dolphin^ — the only good ship of the four. He touched America 
near the coast of New York and New Jersey, entered Long Island 
Sound, and came up New York Bay. He describes a beautiful river, 
which probably was the Hudson, but he did not stop to explore it. 
Coming out from Long Island Sound, he sailed northward, past 
Cape Cod and the crooked coast of Maine, and finally stopped at 
the borders of Canada. From his discovery all this region was first 
called " New France." 

Now as earl}^ as 1503 the Portuguese had discovered that New- 
foundland was a wonderful place to catch fish, and that there was 
no end to the number of cod which swam around its banks. It is 
probable that Verrazano carried back reports of the great wealth of 
fish in these waters, for shortly after his return to France we hear 
of many French ships off Newfoundland Banks. One of the nobles 
of the court of Francis I. was allowed a certain sum of money on 
every ship-load of fish brought into French ports, and he took good 
care to encourage the fishing trade. For ten years after Verrazano's 
visit, we hear little of New Fi-ance except that the fishing sloops 
went there every year in immbers. 

St. Malo is a rocky little sea-port in the province of Brittany in 
France, and is famous for its brave and hardy sailors. Indeed, 
nearly all the dwellers in St. Malo get their living from the ocean, 
which washes up on their rock -bound coast. Jacques Cartier was 
born and bred there, and grew up to be just the kind of a man to 
command an expedition to America. In 1534, just ten years after 



52 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Verrazano, Cartier was fitted out, to see what could be done toward 
establishing a colony in New France. 

He went to Newfoundland in the track of the fishing vessels. 
Sailing around that island, past the banks, he set up a cross on the 
bleak shores of Labrador, and traded with the natives of that coast 
and of New Brunswick. The Indians were so friendly with the 
Frenchmen, that one of the chiefs let two young Indian boys, his 
own sons, go back to Europe with Cartier. It was less than five 
months from the time he left St. Malo that he was back again with 
accounts of his visit. 

In 1535 he sailed again with three ships. But this time he had 
ill winds, wdiich do not seem to have blown anybody good. How- 
ever, they all got into land safely at last, and entered the Gulf of 
the Three Brotliers, where Gaspar Cortereal had sailed in, never to 
be heard of afterwards. Cartier gave this gulf and river the name 
of St. Laivrence, because he entered it on the day which the Romish 
Church has dedicated to the memory of Lawrence, the Christian 
martyr. He sailed down the river as far as an island on which was 
a wooded hill. Climbing this hill to overlook the country, he named 
it Mont-real (royal mountain), and there the city of Montreal, Can- 
ada, was afterwards built. 

Cartier lived up there all winter among the Indians, and lost 
many of his men from cold weather and the scurvy. The Indians 
were very good to them, and the French traded Avith them for 
many fine furs. 

In the spring he went back to France, taking only two of his 
ships. The third had been somewhat disabled 
by the weather, and he had lost too many of 
his crew to man her properly, so he left it 
behind. In 1848, only twenty-six years ago, 
and over three hundred years after its deser- 
tion, this old ship tvas found sticking up in the 
mud of the St. Latvrence River. Would you 
_ not like to have seen this strange old craft 

cartiers Ship. which had fclt the tramp of the sailors of St. 

Malo on her decks three hundred years ago, and had laid quiet so 
many ages after its work was done ? 

Again Cartier sailed with five ships and men to build a colony. 
But on his second voyage he had carried away some natives to sell 
as slaves, and perhaps the Indians remembered that against him, for 




FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 53 

he was not so well received by them this time. He visited jNIon- 
treal, but without founding a colony, and eight months after started 
for France. On his way back he met Lord de la Roque, who had 
just been made Governor-General of New France, by the king. La 
Roque ordered him back, but Cartier refused to go. He went in- 
stead to St. Malo, and was never heard of as a discoverer afterwards. 
De la Roque built a fort on the site of Quebec, and then he too 
got discouraged and returned to France. 



CHAPTER VHL 

FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 

The French Protestants. — The Land of Flowers. — The Colony of Ribaiilt in Carolina. — 
Spaniards at St. Augustine. — The Spanish massacre the French Colony. — Sad Fate of 
Ribault and his Companions. — Dominic de Gourgues. — He avenges the Murder of 
Frenchmen. 

This all happened from 1534 to 1542. Twenty years later there 
was an attempt to found a French colony in North America. It 
happened in this way. There were in France a good many people 
called Huguenots, which was only another name for those who were 
of the Protestant religion, and did not believe in the Roman Cath- 
olic Church. Nearly all Europe was Roman Catholic then. The 
English nation had only just got rid of the Pope's authority and 
gone to thinking a little for itself. The Spania'rds were all very 
bitter Romanists, and wished to put everybody to death who did 
not believe just as they did ; the French king was Roman Catho- 
lic also, and so were nearly all his nobles. Francis I. was dead, and 
Charles IX. was King of France. 

Yet there was one very good Huguenot nobleman in the court of 
Charles whom, in spite of his religion, the Romanists 
were forced to respect. His name was Coligny, M^ 

and he was an admiral in the French navy. jP^^i 

This nobleman saw that there was very little ffr ^^J r 
peace for the Huguenots in France, and accordingly ^^ fi fML 
he planned to make a colony of them in America, F/f^i^Wi 

where they could find a refuge to escape persecu- 1w^^ 

tion in their own country. if// '^ 

He obtained the consent of the king, and first «^*"J|^^^, 
made an attempt to settle a colony in Brazil. But French nobieman m 
the Portuguese resisted their encroachments on '^'^^ 



54 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

what tliey claimed as their territory. In the year 1562 he sent an 
expedition to Florida, commanded by John Ribault. 

All Europe had heard much of the beauty of the " Land of 
Flowers," and it was known the Spaniards had not attempted to 
settle there since the unfortunate journey of Ferdinand de Soto. 
The Spanish colonies were all in Mexico and South America, or on 
the West India islands. Therefore Ribault deteriuined to go to 
Florida. As they neared this far-famed land, the sailors were de- 
lighted with sight of its vernal shores, which sloped gently down, 
green even to the water's edge. A little back from the shore 
stretched a line of dense forests. Over the trees ran flowering vines 
with many colored blossoms. They could see gay plumaged birds 
and graceful deer in the leafy recesses of the wood. 

On the first day of May, 1562, they sailed into the St. John's 
River in Florida. Ribault called this river the May^ in honor of the 
month in which he entered it. Here he set up a stone pillar look- 
ing out to sea, with the coat of arms of France engraved on it ; and 
then, not quite satisfied with the place, he sailed northward past the' 
coast of Georgia, to Port Royal in South Carolina. At this point 
Ribault built a fort which he called Fort Caroline, in honor of 
Charles IX., and from this fort comes the names of the States which 
are now called the Carolinas. But at that time you must remember 
all this country north of Mexico was known as Florida. After es- 
tablishing the fort Ribault returned to France, leaving thirty men 
under command of Albert de la Pierria. 

Left to themselves these Frenchmen made merry, and formed 
friendships with the Indians ; but they neglected to plant corn for 
the harvest, and would have starved if the natives had not been 
very generous with them and given them part of their crops. After 
a time, getting homesick and discontented, they quarreled with each 
other, and finally accused tlieir leader, Albert de la Pierria, of cru- 
elty, and put him to death. 

There was a good deal of sickness and suffering amongst them, 
and they resolved to build a ship and return to France. They had 
already a small pinnace — which is a vessel propelled partly b}^ oars 
and partly by sails, — that Ribault had left behind. This they took 
in pieces for materials to help build a larger ship. They had also 
some iron and a forge in the fort, and the Indians gave them ropes 
for the rigging, made of grass and the tough bark of trees. To 
caulk their vessel they used the long moss which hung from the 
forest trees, and pitch was plentiful everywhere on the tall pines. 



FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 55 

They finished this ship and went on board her, poorly provisioned 
for the long jonrney. They snffered terribly, and would all have 
died, most likely, if they had not met an English ship which suc- 
cored them, and took the few survivors home. 

In 1564 Admiral Coligny sent out a second colony. Ribanlt did 
not go this time, and Rene de Laudonniere commanded the fleet. 
They sailed for the river which Ribanlt had called the May, and 
which yon can now find on the map of Florida as the St. John's 
River. There they found the pillar still standing which Ribanlt 
had set up on first landing in America. Around it were pretty 
little baskets made of fresh green rushes heaped full of yellow corn. 
These o*fferings the Indians had placed around the pillar to show 
their reverence for it. 

Soon after the French landed, the natives came trooping down to 
the shore, crying " Ami, ^mi." " Ami " is 'the French word for 
friend, which the natives had learned of Ribanlt, and repeated to 
show they had not forgotten the former coming of the Frenchmen. 

They set to work at once to built a fort. The Indians helped 
them eagerly, and showed themselves very friendly. They taught 
the French how to thatch their houses with leaves after the Indian 
•custom, and they gave them a generous portion of their corn. 

This fort the Frenchmen also called Fort Caroline, as they had 
named the former one at Port Royal. And like the former colony 
they began to get into trouble among themselves as soon as the fort 
was built. There were nearly always some reckless spirits in every 
colony who did not wish to work, and consequently made trouble for 
the rest. 

Then thej'^ were homesick, and desired to go back to France again. 
While they were making plans to leave the country, they saw a fleet 
putting into their harbor, and to their great delight it proved to be 
Captain Ribault with seven ships. 

Shortly before the appearance of Ribault, the French had heard 
that some Spanish ships had come to Florida, and landed just a hun- 
dred miles below where they were building. 

This report was true. The Spaniards had made a stronghold, and 
planted a colony at a place they called St. Augustine. It is the 
present site of the old town of that name in Florida and this town, 
thus built by the Spaniards in 1564, is the oldest town in all the 
United States. 

Just before Ribault came up the mouth of the St. John's 



56 STOEY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

River, some of the Spanish vessels hirking about, fired upon his 
ships, but did him no injury. This showed the French that the 
Spaniards meant to be unfriendly, and served to put them on their 
guard against them. Ribault went up to Fort Caroline and took the 
command which belonged to him by superior rank. Laudonniere 
wanted him to stay and make the fort stronger in case the Spanish 
forces came to attack them. But Ribault decided to take his ships 
and go to St. Augustine to besiege the Spaniards. He therefore 
gathered all his fighting men, and left Laudonniere with the women 
and children and a few men, who from sickness or other causes 
could not go with him. 

As soon as Ribault was fairly off, a party of Spaniards attacked 
the fort and soon got inside the walls. Then they murdered, in 
cold blood, every man, woman, and child they could seize upon. 
Laudonniere and a fe'w others escaped to the sea-shore, and taking a 
small vessel Ribault had left behind, they succeeded in getting back 
to France. But ver}'- few escaped the Spanish swords. 

In the mean time Ribault fared very badly. Terrific storms came 
on, and as these were all strange waters and coasts, of course even 
experienced sailors did not know how to steer safely. So it hap- 
pened that all Ribault 's ships were wrecked, and he and his men 
barely escaped with their lives. 

They found themselves on shore in the wilderness, one hundred 
miles from the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine and one hun- 
dred and fifty from Fort Caroline. In order to get on easier they 
agreed to separate into. two companies. One of these companies 
numbered about two hundred men, the other two hundred and fifty. 

The party which Ribault commanded marched northward till 
they came to the banks of a river, where they beheld a great force 
of Spaniards awaiting them on the opposite side. The French 
stopped to parley with them. After some talk the French, who must 
have lost many of their arms in their shipwreck and been worn out 
with their severe march, agreed to give themselves up to the enemy. 
They had not heard of the fate of their comrades in the fort, and 
had no reason to suppose they should receive any cruel treatment at 
the hands of the Spaniards, who were not at war with France. No 
sooner had they surrendered themselves than the Spaniards ordered 
them to be placed in a line, and then the Spanish soldiery set upon 
them with their swords and daggers, and stabbed every man to death. 
No, not quite all. They first asked every man what religion he was 



FRENCH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 57 

of, and ten or twelve said they were Roman Catholics. These they 
kept alive. The rest — Ribault among them — were thus foully 
slaughtered. One man, a carpenter by trade, fell down as one life- 
less, and after the Spaniards had left them for dead, he crawled 
away, managed to get into a safe place, and finally returned to 
France, where he wrote this story and had it printed. 

After the Spaniards had done this foul deed they hung the bodies 
of these murdered men on trees with this label fastened to them, 
'•'■Not as Frenchmen, hit as Lutheraiis,^^ which meant they did not 
kill these men because they were Frenchmen, but because they were 
of the belief of Martin Luther, who was a Protestant and boldly 
opposed the Roman Catholic Church. 

The party which had separated from Ribault, were a little more 
fortunate. Shortly after the murder of Ribault and his men, the 
Spaniards heard that this second party were building a fort not far 
from St. Augustine. On this they sent word to know if they 
would surrender, promising them they should not be harmed. The 
French, who knew nothing of the fate of their companions, gave 
themselves up. It is a remarkable fact, that the Spanish leader 
kept his word, and this party of French were unharmed. Many 
of the French had previously gone to ask shelter of the Indians, 
preferring to trust the tender mercies of savages rather than the 
Spaniards. 

When the few surviving Frenchmen returned to France with an 
account of these massacres, the French people, both Huguenots and 
Romanists, were filled with rage against the Spaniards. But King 
Charles paid no attention to the wrongs the colony had endured. 
He was a weak boy ruled by his bad mother, Catherine de Medicis, 
a violent Romanist, who wanted all the Huguenots in the kingdom 
slaughtered. Many people believed that the French court knew 
the designs of the Spaniards, and had encouraged them, that France 
might be rid of the Protestant colony. But there was one man in 
France, though he was a devout Romanist, who was too much of 
a patriot to see his countrymen slaughtered without indignation. 
This man was Dominic de Gourgues, a noble gentleman of Gascony 
in France. 

He sold all his estates, borrowed of his friends, and got all the 
money together he could to fit out ships for Florida. Then he 
picked out a brave company of soldiers, and went on his way. He 
did not tell his men what he was going to do till the ships reached 



58 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the West Indies. Then he told them he was going to lead them to 
avenge their lost countrymen. At this they were so impatient to 
go on that he could hardly restrain them. 

Gourgues went to the River May, and there had a talk with the 
Indian chiefs with whom the French had been on friendly terms. 
He found a number of his countrymen among the Indians who had 
fled at the time of the massacre. These men had learned the lan- 
guage of the natives, and could act as interpreters. 

All the Indians hated the Spaniards, and were ready to join the 
French to do battle against them. In a few days Gourgues at- 
tacked the Spanish forts with the help of the Indians, and killed 
every Spaniard in their strongholds. Those who were not killed in 
battle were hung on the scaffold. In return for the label they had 
affixed to the bodies of the French, he affixed to each of the .Span- 
iards as they hung on their gibbets, " JVot as S'payiiards and sailors, 
hut as traitors, robbers, and murderersy In all cases the Indians 
fought bravely, and were the firm allies of the French. They fed 
them with fish, corn, and game, and remained to the last their true 
friends. There were three forts belonging to the Spaniards near 
the St. John's River, and after all these had been sacked, De Gour- 
gues returned home. The fort of St. Augustine being stronglj^ 
fortified, he did not attack it, and the settlement remained there 
unharmed. 

After his return the king looked coldly on De Gourgues, and the 
queen-mother would have arrested him, had she dared, but the peo- 
ple welcomed him as their hero. He had ruined himself by the ex- 
pedition, and died a few years later in great poverty. 

You will recognize the fact, that his conduct was not in accord- 
ance with a high spirit of humanity, but his feeling for his country- 
men was an unselfish and noble one. It is sad to discover that the 
history of Christian nations, is not at all a carrying out of the prin- 
ciple of returning good for evil. 

After this Coligny made no more attempts to settle a French col- 
ony. In fact, he himself was shortly^nurdered in a general killing 
of all the Huguenots in the great city of Paris where he dwelt. 



ENGLISH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 



59 



CHAPTER IX. 



ENGLISH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 

Sir Himiplirey Gilbert's Voyage. — His Ship struclv by an Iceberg. — Tlie Siiipwrecked Crew. 
— Walter Kaleigli's First Colony. — Homesick Emigrants. — The Lost Colonists. 

In the mean time the English were growing jealons of the power 
the Spaniards had assnmed over this country, and over all the seas. 
The massacre of the French colony excited much anger in England. 
The English sovereign, Queen Elizabeth (a granddaughter of Henry 
VH., who had been the patron of American discovery), was strongly 
opposed to the Komanists. She sympathized with Dominic de 
Gourgues, and sent one of her ambassadors to invite him to England. 
Sir Francis Drake, and other brave English captains, went out to 
cruise in the Atlantic, to overtake and capture any Spanish vessel 
they might meet on the high seas, and thus revenge certain wrongs 
which they said this proud nation had inflicted on English ships 
peacefully sailing southward. 

England had not yet attempted to plant colonies in America. 
She still claimed the land Sebastian Cabot explored, 
which extended from Labrador to Florida ; and every 
year she had vessels fishing off the Banks of New- 
foundland. But until the year 1578 there was little 
attempt at colonizing. 

In that year Sir Humphrey Gilbert got a patent 
from Queen Elizabeth, which gave him the right to 
explore, settle, and fortify in any part of her pos- 
sessions in North America, where he might lead his 
ships. Sir Humphrey was a half-brother of Sir 
Walter • Raleigh, who was one of the favorite noble- 
men of Queen Elizabeth. She was a queen who liked brave andele 
gant gentlemen, to set off her royal pres- 
ence, and Sir Walter was famous for being 
one of the handsomest and best-dressed 
men of the time, and better than that, 
he was a brave soldier, a clear-headed 
statesman, a fine orator, and something 
of a poet. At the time De Gourgues re- 
turned from Florida, Raleigh was in Paris, 
in high favor with Colignyand the Hugue- 
nots there, and probably heard much about 
the French colonies. In 158^, when Ra- sir'waiter Raieigh. 




English Gentleman, 
1580. 




60 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

leigh was in London, his lialf-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, much 
older than he, was making preparations for a voyage to America. 

There were five ships in all. Sir Humphrey, the admiral, went 
on the ship Delight^ the Raleigh followed, commanded by the vice- 
admiral of the fleet, then came the Grolden ni7id^ with rear-admiral 
Edward Hayes. There were, besides, two smaller barks, the Squir- 
rel^ and the Swallow. 

They sailed for Newfoundland, and there found thirty-six ships 
of other nations fishing away on the banks. The first thing Sir 
Humphrey did was to drive all these thirty-six other ships away. 
I am surprised to find they went so peaceably. His claim to New- 
foundland seems to us so very doubtful that one would have ex- 
pected all the other ships to insist that the}^ had as good right to 
fish on Newfoundland Banks as he. But they gave him no trouble, 
and after a little parley sailed away, and left him in undisputed 
possession of all the fish. Then he set up a pillar with the English 
arms upon it, to show that this was English ground. After this the 
little fleet, headed by the Grolden ffind, began to sail southward. 
There were only four sliips now, for the Raleigh had, on first sail- 
ing out, got separated from the rest, and very soon returned alone 
to England. But Sir Humphrey and the others went to Cape Race, 
which is on the southern extremity of the island of Newfoundlandj 
and sailing westerly tried to get in to land. There they fell among 
shoals, and had terrible storms and fogs and all kinds of bad 
weather, till the Swallow went down to the bottom of the sea. Af- 
ter that Sir Humphrey thought he would leave his own ship, the 
Delight, and go on board the Squirrel, which was smaller, and 
better fitted for navigating the coast. The sailors tried to dissuade 
him on account of the danger, but he would not give in. " What," 
said the stout old sailor, " is not heaven quite as near by sea as 
land ? " 

So he went on board the smaller ship and got in close to shore. 
Suddenly the Golden Hind, which was not far behind the Squirrel, 
felt the shock of a sharp concussion in the water, and immediately 
they saw the sea close over the lights which liung in her rigging, 
and that was the last they ever saw or heard of the hapless vessel. 
Whether a floating iceberg, drifting down from unknown seas like 
a glassen ship, had with one blow crushed in her timbers and sunk 
her under the black waters, or whether she struck some unseen 
rock, I do not know. But down she went with all these brave 



ENGLISH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 61 

souls on board her, and the grand old admiral on her deck. Noble 
Sir Humphrey ! I fancy heaven was quite as near him as in his 
own dear England. But does it not make the eyes fill with tears 
to think of those bold fellows, eager to build towns in the wilder- 
ness, and bring civilization to this unknown land, daring the terrors 
of strange waters, suffering from cold and exposure, and all to go 
down at last under the cruel sea, never to see their wives and chil- 
dren any more ? Our own poet, Longfellow, sings their sad fate, — 

" Alas ! The land-wind failed, 
And ice-cold grew the night, 
And never more on sea or land 
Would Sir Hiimphrej' see the light ! " 

After the Squirrel went down the ship Delight took her turn 
at disaster. She struck a rock and parted amidships. Fourteen 
of her crew got on board a pinnace, and they waited to take the 
captain off too, but, like many another brave shipmaster, he would 
go down with his ship rather than leave her. So he went to the 
bottom with the timbers of his beloved craft. The fourteen picked 
np two more out of the water, and then they were so crowded that 
the cry was raised that lots must be drawn to cast one overboard. 
At this one brave fellow (I wish we knew his name) spoke up, and 
said, " No ; better trust to Providence, and sink or swim together 
than cast one man out." And his counsel prevailed. So the six- 
teen souls drifted about on the desolate sea. 

Six days and nights they drifted thus, suffering horrible tortures 
from hunger and thirst, eating the soles of their shoes, and lapping up 
with parched tongues the blessed night-dew when it fell. In this 
time two died, and were cast overboard. On the seventh day the pin- 
nace floated ashore at Newfoundland, and the fourteen survivors, hag- 
gard, starved, and meagre, landed there. Afterwards an English 
ship took them back to London. Tliis was the end of the first voyage. 

After that Sir Walter Raleigh bought the whole of Sir Hum- 
phrey's patent, and began to fit out a second expedition. Sir 
Walter would have liked to command this in person, but he had 
his hands full in England. He was one of the favorite courtiers of 
Queen Elizabeth, and you know what an exacting mistress she was, 
— so vain, so eager for admiration, and so jealous lest any of her 
lords should show preference for any one except herself, that she 
constantly kept poor Sir Walter in trouble. Between trying to 
keep in her good grace and not make himself too much a slave to 




62 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

her whims, he seems to have had a hard time of it. Then Le had 
powerful enemies, because his rivals saw that the queen really favored 
him, and that made them jealous and ready to plot against him. 
When he found he could not go in person he sent two of his friends, 
Arthur Barlow and Philip Amydos, to explore. Coming back they 
gave such glowing accounts of the beauty of the country that Raleigh 
laid their descriptions before Elizabeth, and the land was named 
Virginia, in honor of that princess, who was known as the " Virgin 
Queen." 

In this very year, 1585, on a beautiful summer day, Sir Richard 
Grenville started for America with Sir 
Walter's first colony. They landed on an 
island called Roanoke, just outside Roan- 
oke Inlet, and began the first English col- 
ony in America. Soon after leaving them 
Sir Richard returned to England for more 
supplies. The colonists went to work to 
settle the wilderness, but they had a se- 
Drake 3 Ship. vcre tlmc. They did not know how to pro- 

vide against hardships, and like almost all new colonists they suf- 
fered terribly. They did not get houses built soon enough, and had 
to live in wretched little huts all the first winter. And winter 
always seems hard on new colonies. It generally happens to be 
the coldest known for years. 

Then their provisions gave out, and they nearly starved. The 
Indians became hostile, too, to add to the distress, and they were in 
a most desperate and pitiable condition when the spring of 1586 
dawned upon them. They dragged out a miserable existence tlirough 
the spring and summer, and in August of that year Sir Francis Drake 
came there with his fleet. He had been on several expeditions 
to fight the Spaniards, and take away some of the gold this latter 
nation had plundered from the Indians in South America. He 
had sailed all around this continent, had landed at California, which 
was then an unknown country, and was returning home loaded with 
gold and booty of all kinds taken from Spanish sliips. 

His own ship was very splendid indeed. He had it fitted up 
with velvet and satin hangings in his cabin, with gold and silver 
dishes to eat and drink from, and a band of musicians on board. 
Imagine how he looked on his princely ship in his handsome dress, 
as he came sailing up to the half-starved colonists at Roanoke. I 



ENGLISH ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT. 63 

warrant they cried and laughed and fell on each other's necks when 
they saw their dear old English flag streaming in the air under 
these strange skies. And I doubt not the generous admiral feasted 
them with the best he had on board when they told him they 
were free-born Englishmen who had been starving for months. 
At first he offered to leave them plenty of provisions and take 
home news of them to England. But they were so homesick, they 
pleaded only to go back. So he took them all on board his fleet, 
every man of them, and the colony sailed back to England. 

Sir Walter at home, harassed by his enemies and in not very 
good spirits, had sent out Sir Richard Grenville with more ships, 
not yet knowing Sir Francis Drake had taken them away. When 
Sir Richard arrived and found the settlement all deserted, he landed 
fifty men and provisions for two years as a beginning of another 
colony. This was in 1586, nearly a j^ear since Sir Francis had taken 
away the others, and yet Sir Richard Grenville had not heard the 
news of their departure before he left England. You see they had 
no steamships nor Atlantic cable in those days. 

Well, Sir Richard left the fifty men, among whom were carpen- 
ters, blacksmiths, and all sorts of artisans, and they went to work 
merrily, cutting down trees, planting grain, and preparing to build 
a fort to keep secure from the Indians. They seem so stanch 
and brave and resolute, such a little party breasting the terrors 
of the great wilderness, that I can Iiardly bear to tell yon what 
happened to them. Just one year after, Raleigh sent Mr. John 
White as governor, with three ships and supplies to the colony. 
He reached Roanoke inlet and landed on the beach. Instead of the 
expected sound of the axes in the greenwood, and the more cheerful 
sound of voices greeting them on the shore, a stillness like death 
reigned there. The half-erected fort was there, but no human be- 
ing lurked within its walls. They called, and shouted, and made 
the forest ring with blasts of trumpets, but there was no voice to 
answer in hearty English welcome. Only white bones lying among 
the ruins of the attempted town. Every man of the settlement had 
been killed by the Indians. 

I admire the spirits which were undaunted by the disaster which * 
had been met before. I can hardly believe men could be found 
nowadays who would settle in a place where they knew so much 
discouragement and toil and peril awaited them. Yet there were 
men so brave, and women, too, and the next colony was immedi- 



64 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ately formed from those on board Mr. White's ships. They chose 
eleven men, for a governor and his assistants, and the third colony 
was begun. Soon after landing. Mistress EUinor Dare, who was 
the daughter of the governor, and the wife of Ananias Dare, gave 
birth to a dear little babe, who was the first Christian child ever 
born on this continent. They named her Virginia, after the land 
in which she was born, — delicate little English blossom, to spring 
from so rude and inhospitable a soil ! 

After safely landing his party, Mr. John White prepared to go 
back to England to report to Sir Walter. First he took counsel of 
the people to find out their minds about staying, and all chose of 
their own accord to remain. Then he sailed away as swiftly as the 
wind would take him, and, I doubt not, many an eye gazed after 
him as if they bade a last farewell to England in his retreating sails. 

After his return Mr. White spent two years trying to get fitted 
out again. It was up-hill work, for the American possessions were 
getting less and less popular, but at length with three ships and 
more men and provisions, he went back. 

Again they met the same experience as before. No gathering on 
the shore to greet them, no voices answering to their shouts, no 
signs of human occupation. They landed and looked anxiously 
about them. After some search they found three large letters, C. 
R. O. carved in the bark of a tree, and then, looking more closely 
found, cut on the logs of the fort, the word CROATAN. They rec- 
ognized this as the name of an island outside the inlet. They also 
found some smouldering embers in the fort, which denoted recent 
occupation, and some of the sailors unearthed certain chests which 
contained goods belonging to Mr. White. These he was glad to 
see, because it confirmed his impression that the colonists were alive 
and in safety, since they had time before going away to conceal 
this treasure. On this, he took to his ships and decided to go di- 
rectly to Croatan. 

Now comes the strangest part of the story. Mr. White's ships 
never reached Croatan at all. After they got out to sea the wind 
changed, the weather was unfavorable, the fleet drifted off in the 
direction of the Azores, and never, so far as we can find out, from 
that day to this, did any one ever go to Croatan to look for the lost 
colonists. There they remain — the one hundred and fif1;y men, 
women, and children, Ananias Dare with his wife Ellinor, the gov- 
ernor's daughter, and their dear little baby, — never to be known 



THE INDIvVNS. 65 

among men any more. Did they live there in Croatan till they died 
of hunger and hardships ? Did the Indians murder them as they 
did their predecessors ? Did they unite with the Indians and be- 
come one with the tribe, the little Virginia growing up into a lovely 
maiden, perhaps to become the fair-faced princess of some dusky 
warrior ? All these questions have been p.sked over and over, but 
they have never been answered. And this was the end of Sir 
Walter's last colony. There are records among his papers of ships 
fitted out to seek these lost people, but nothing is known of any such 
expedition. There is little doubt that he did make some effort to 
send after them. He also made two or three attempts to plant 
other colonies in Guiana, South America, and lost his son Walter 
in a skirmish with the Spaniards there. 

You know what became of Sir Walter himself, do you not ? The 
endino; of his life was as sad as the fate of the colonists. He out- 
lived the dangerous intrigues of his enemies all through the reign 
of Queen Bess, to fall a victim to them in the time of James I., her 
successor, and this princely courtier, this noble gentleman, perished 
on the scaffold in 1618, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE INDIANS. 



First Inhabitants of America. — Aztecs in Mexico. — The Eed Men of the United States. — How 
they looked. — Their Houses. — The Clothes the}' wore. — Canoes. — Food. — Household- 
Implements. — Indian Women. — The Happy Huntnig-grounds. 

Befoee I proceed to tell you about the permanent settlement of 
the white man in this country, I must tell you something about the 
people who inhabited America at the time it was discovered. You 
know that Columbus called them Indians^ because he supposed they 
were dwellers in a country that was either a part of the continent 
of Asia or very near it. But the Indians had names by which they 
called themselves, and when the white people began to settle here, 
they found there were many different tribes and peoples, and that 
there were great diversities in language, manners, and customs, 
among the various tribes. 

When Hernando Cortez had entered Mexico and conquered it, he 
found a very much more civilized people than those dwelling in 



66 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

other parts of North America. They had a fine city, with walls, 
well-built houses, and temples ornamented with gold and silver, in 
which to worship their gods. The kings wore robes woven of cot- 
ton, dyed in beautiful colors, and sometimes painted with birds and 
flowers, so that they resembled fine European fabrics. They also 
understood the art of smelting metals, and making paper, and many 
manufactures of which the more northern Indians knew nothing. 

These people were called Aztecs, and were the most civilized na- 
tives on this continent. 

But the Indians who inhabited the coimtry which is now the 
United States, were a race*of savage people, without any knowl- 
edge of the arts and manufactures, and very little idea of the man- 
ner of tilling the soil. 

The skins of these native Americans were copper-colored, or red- 
dish brown, from which they have been called " red-skins," or " red 
men." They had black hair, which even in the women never 
curled or fell in waving masses, but was always perfectly straight 
and very coarse. The men did not have beards, and never shaved. 
If any hair attempted to grow on their faces they plucked it out by 
the roots, so that it did not come again. They had rather small, 
half-shut eyes, high cheek-bones, and low, broad foreheads. We 
should not think them a very handsome people, I fancy, although 
some of the Indian women, and men, too, are said to have been 
quite dignified and good-looking. 

When De Soto went through Florida on his way to the Missis- 
sippi River, he passed through a great many Indian kingdoms. 
None of these were very large, and each tribe spoke a language a 
little different from its neighboring tribe. Each kingdom had its 
town, into which they could retire in case of war. These towns 
were walled about, as I have described to you in the account of De 
Soto's march to the Mississippi. All about these towns lay the 
fields where they planted their corn and beans. 

The Indian corn, or maize, potatoes, and tobacco, were all new 
vegetable productions to the white men, and were soon introduced 
into Europe as great luxuries. On the other hand, the Indians had 
no domestic animals at all. They had plenty of wild deer, which 
they used for food, and dressed their skins for clothing ; the 
woods and rivers abounded in wild ducks, turkeys, geese, swans, 
and all kinds of game. But they had no farm animals, no oxen, 
cows, horses, pigs, or even dogs and cats. All these were brought 




THE INDIANS. 67 

here by the Europeans. De Soto brought the first horses and pigs, 
and when the English began to settle here, they brought oxen, 
sheep, cows, and all the animals which are seen in an English barn- 
yard. 

The Indians who lived in Virginia and the eastern States were 
eveij less civilized than those De Soto encountered. Their houses, 
or " wigwams," were often made of several 
poles, put into the ground in a circle, and tied 
together at the .top in the 'fehape of a round 
tent. These poles were covered with mats 
woven of grass, and the inner bark of trees, 
which was tough and fibrous. Sometimes the 
wigwams were square, with poles thrust in wigwam. 

the ground in each corner, forming a room eighteen or twenty feet 
square, with walls of matting and a roof of the same. In the cen- 
tre of the roof was a hole through which the smoke might pass 
when they built a fire inside this tent. Often the walls inside were 
lined witli the fur of the deer, and piles of these deer-skins made 
very comfortable beds. 

In the summer the Indians wore very little clothing, but in the 
winter the northern Indians dressed warmly in mantles of fur, some- 
times very handsomely trinnned with feathers. They wore leggings of 
skins, and their moccasins or shoes were made of the same material. 
When they were in full dress the men wore high crests of bright 
feathers on their heads, and decorated their faces with paints of 
many colors. They seemed to think this paint added very much to 
their beauty, and if any of the young Indian girls could get a lit- 
tle blue and yellow and red paint to daub over her cheeks and fore- 
head in long streaks, she was very proud of her personal appear- 
ance. 

They also had strings of shells of different colors, which they used 
for ornaments. These were woven into belts, and sometimes embroi- 
dered upon the edges of their fur mantles, or up and down their 
leggings, and made little tinklings when they walked. These shells, 
which they called tvanipum, they used for money, and had dif- 
ferent values for them, as they were more or less rare. After the 
white men began to trade with the Indians tliey brought over 
many-colored beads which the Indians also called wampuyn, and 
used for decoration in the same way that they had used the shells. 
Often they would give bushels of corn, or an armful of rich furs, 
for a single handful of bright-colored beads. 



68 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



The deer was a very valuable animal to the Indians. After they 
had stripped him of his skin to make their clothes, or their beds, 




American Deer. 



or the lining to their wigwams, they had his carcass for food. And 
they used his sinews for thread to sew their clothing, or their ca- 
noes of birch bark. 

These canoes or boats were sometimes made of logs, hollowed 
out something as you have seen a pig's trough, but oftener they 
were made of the bark of the birch-tree, stripped off in one long 
piece and carefully fitted over a light frame of cedar wood. In 
these frail little boats, which danced on the water like a plaything, 
the Indians, sometimes eight or ten in one canoe, would make long 
journeys in rivers abounding in falls and rapids, and would come 
safely back in them. When they were on shore, the boats were so 
light they could take them on their shoulders and carry them from 
one river to another. 

There was no need of their suffering for want of food. Besides 
the deer which were so abundant, and the corn and beans which 
they raised every season, there were quantities of wild fowl and 
game which they could shoot with their bows and arrows* Then 



THE INDIANS. (39 

the ocean, rivers, and inland lakes swarmed with fish. All the 
Indians who lived near the sea, or any body of water, were very 
skillfnl in taking fish, and it was a principal feature in their diet. 
Indeed, many of the Indian dishes would seem very delightful to a 
hungry man, and quite make his mouth water to think of. 

At one time, after a colony of Englishmen had been settled in 
Virginia and was getting on prosperously, a party of colonists com- 
ing over from England to join them were shipwrecked, and cast 
ashore some miles below the English settlement on a rocky island. 
One of the gentlemen, named Colonel Norwood, who was a kinsman 
of the governor of the colony, tells the story of their sufferings. 
For some time they lived on oysters which they found on the rocks, 
but at last even the supply of oysters gave out, and they were act- 
ually forced to become cannibals, and eat the bodies of their dead 
companions. In this great distress some Indians found them, car- 
ried them off the island in their canoes, took them to their wis;- 
warns, and fed and succored them in the tenderest manner. 

Colonel Norwood describes the houses and fare of the Indians 
very minutely, and cannot praise too much their kindness, who thus 
saved the lives of all the party. This is his description of the king's 
wigAvam : — 

" Locust posts sunk in the ground at corners and partitions was 
the strength of the whole fabric. The roof was tied fast to the 
posts with a sort of strong rushes which grew there, which supplied 
the place of nails and pins. 

" This house or wigwam was about twenty feet square, and on 
both sides were platforms about six feet long, covered with skins 
which were used for beds. In the middle of the roof was the hole 
for the smoke, which naturally did not all rise out at this opening 
without the aid of a chimney, but was plentifully distributed in all 
parts of the wigwam." 

The first dish which the starving party were served with was 
what the natives called " hominy," or Indian corn boiled and beaten 
to a mash. This they handed round in a wooden bowl, a large 
clean muscle shell serving for a spoon. Then they fed them with 
steaks cut from the hind-quarters of a deer, and roasted before 
the coals on a sharp stick. Another time they had a wild turkey 
boiled with oysters, and served up in the same pot in which it 
was boiled. "■ This," says Colonel Norwood, " was a very savory 
mess, and I believe would have passed for a delicacy at any great 



70 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




table in England, by palates more competent to make a judgment 
than mine, which was now more gratified with the quayitity than 
the quality of what was before me." 

All the cooking utensils of the savages were either of stone or a 
kind of rude earthenware made of baked clay. 
Indeed, all their implements w^ere of the 
rudest kind. You can imagine they were so, 
when you remember they had no iron what- 
ever. Even the Aztecs, who were partly civil- 
ized, had no iron, although they knew how to 
Weapons. mclt coppcr, silvcr, and gold. But the north- 

ern Indians understood the use of none of the metals. Their most 
dangerous weapons, and all their instruments for hunting and fish- 
ing, were of stone rudely hammered and sharpened. The heads of 
their arrows were of stone, and their tomahawks (a kind of war-club 
which they could fling so dexterously as to split the skull of 
an enemy), were also of sharpened stone. 

After the English came they soon learned to use muskets and 
fire-arms of different kinds. But at first they were very much 
afi-aid of them. Often after they had seen these weapons they 
would fancy, when they were taken ill, that some unseen bullet had 
wounded them, and they would send to beg a w^hite man to come 
and cure them. They could not understand, either, what gunpow- 
der was, and the first quantity which they obtained they planted in 
the ground, expecting it to come up in the spring, as the corn and 
beans did, and they could raise a large crop of it. 

The men among the Indians occupied themselves most of the 
time in hunting and fishing and going to war. In war they were 
brave and fearless, although their manner of warfare seemed very 
mean and cowardly to the whites. They rarely came out in fair 
and open battle, as the Europeans did. They hid from their ene- 
mies to leap upon them and surprise them ; they lurked behind 
trees, from which shelter they shot their weapons ; and considered it 
fair to practice any kind of stratagem upon their foes. When they 
killed or murdered an enemy on the battle-ground, they cut the skin 
all around the top of his head and tore away the hair, and this they 
called the ^calp. The bravest Indian chief had many scalp locks of 
his dead foes hanging at his wampum girdle when he went to dance 
his fierce war-dance, and on the handle of his tomahawk was cut 
notches for each scalp he had taken in battle. When they were 



THE INDIANS. 



71 



captured and put to death they rarely uttered a cry or groan, but 
bore terrible pain very heroically. Indeed, they seemed to be less 
sensitive to pain than the white man. Yet though very agile and 
brave and indifferent to pain, it proved in the end that the white 
man could endure hardships longer than the Indian, and that lie 
died under sufferings and burdens which the white man could sus- 
tain and live through. 

The Indian women were treated much like slaves by the men. 




Medicine Dance. 



They did all the labor, such as planting the corn and the other work 
in the fields. They put up the tents, wove the mats for the walls, 
pounded the corn for the flour or hominy, and did all the work ex- 
cept hunting and fishing. The men seemed to care very little for 
their women, and there was less love between Indian husbands and 
wives than among almost any other people ever known. They 
were an idle, wandering race, taking their huts from one place after 
the hunting grounds were exhausted, and the deer all killed from 
that spot, and pitching them somewhere else. Then the women 
trudged along carrying the heavy burdens of lodge-poles and house- 
hold wares and rolls of furs, their babies strapped on their backs, 



72 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

while the men walked off straight and unencumbered, bearing only 
their bows and arrows. And when they decided upon a place to 
fix the camping ground, they lay at ease under the trees, smoking 
their long pipes and talking of battles, while their wives put up 
the wigwams and got the camp in order. 

They had dances to celebrate important events, as " war dances " 
and " harvest dances," after a battle or harvest. When one of the 
tribe was ill, they danced the medicine dance about the couch, hop- 
ing by their wild cries to drive away the bad spirits which caused 
disease. But the women did not take part in these dances. When 
the men danced their war dances with hideous yells, round poles 
decorated with human scalps, with their faces painted in all the col- 
ors of a rainbow, the squaws looked reverently on from beside the 
camp fires. 

They had some rude ideas of religion, for they believed in a 
" Great Spirit," and in happy hunting-grounds, where the soul of 
the warrior went after death ; and when they buried his body they 
put in the grave bows aud arrows, and food for him to eat on his 
journey. Often they tried to make friends with this Great Un- 
known Spirit, by offers of tobacco, or other products of the earth, 
which they burned on a rude altar built to his worship. Their re- 
ligion, however, taught them nothing of the Golden Rule, " Do 
unto others as ye would that they should do to you," nor of the 
Christian doctrine of forgiveness to enemies. They were conse- 
quently terrible and relentless in war, and most of the tribes in 
North America were exceedingly cruel in their treatment of cap- 
tives, whether men, women, or children. Sometimes they took a 
fancy to spare the life of a young child among their white captives, 
and rear it as one of the tribe ; and there are a few instances in 
which a white man or woman has been found, by their kinsfolk, 
after having lived so long among the Indians that they had lost all 
memory of their childhood, and were complete savages in language, 
customs, and everything except features. 

In order that they might be better prepared to bear pain, if in the 
chance of war it should be their fortune to be made prisoners and 
put to the torture, the Indians were trained from childhood to be 
very enduring and hardy. As soon as an Indian babe was born, it 
was strapped to a flat board, on which it was carried on its mother's 
back, or sometimes hung on a tree, or laid on the ground. To this 
board it was fastened night and day. Fancy how decidedly a white 



THE INDIANS. 73 

baby would protest against this treatment. Yet these copper- 
skinned infants rarely uttered a cry, but looked contentedly about 
them with their bead-like black eyes, and bore all discomfort with 
serene temper. When it became time for the youth to join the 
company of the older men, he was forced to go through the severest 
ordeals of trial and pain to test his fortitude, before he was consid- 
ered hardy enough to become a warrior. 

This is a brief description of the first inhabitants of America 
of whom we know anything. They were not without their virtues 
Often very generous and hospitable to the white man who landed on 
their shores, they gave freely of their corn and such poor food and 
shelter as they had. When Ribault landed in Florida, you recollect 
the natives were very kind to him. Indeed, the Frenchmen always 
understood better how to treat the natives, so as to gain their hearts, 
than any other of the Europeans, and the Indians kept faith with 
them better than with any other nation. 

When, too, the English landed in Virginia and New England, the 
natives were not wanting in kindness and proffers of help. After 
a time they found that these "' pale-faces " 
had come to remain and take possession of 
their lands ; that they were crowding them 
off from their hunting-grounds and fishing 
places, and building cities in the sites where '"dian pipes. 

their wigwams used to stand. It was not strange fhat they began 
to grow jealous of this people, whose number seemed to them like 
the stars in the sky, or the sands of the sea, and they resented their 
encroachments with all their savage might and means of warfare. 

Now all that the wisest among them could have feared has 
happened to those poor natives of the soil. The white ' man has 
crowded them back farther and farther, till the last Indian is driven 
beyond the Mississippi. Their tribes are scattered and few in num- 
bers. They have neither been able to keep their savage estate, nor 
■adopt the manners of the white men. It will not be long before 
the last of them will have died out in the great country that they 
once possessed and called their own. 




74 



STOKY OF OUll COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XL 

FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 

King James grants Lands in Virginia. — The Sealed Orders for the Colony. — Captain .John 
Smith. — His School-days. — Turns Hermit. — Tournament with the Turks. — His Slavery 
iu Tartarv. — His Character as Leader in a Colony. 




f0f 



John Smith. 

place on the throne of England. 



Building Jamestown. 

There were no very vigorous 
attempts, on the part of the Eng- 
lish, to settle in America, for 
many years after the sad failure 
of Sir Walter Raleigh's colonies. 
About- the year 1(306 and 1607, 
however, a new interest was 
aroused, and colonizing in America 
was again talked about. Queen 
Elizabeth was now dead, and her 
cousin, James I., had taken her 
From King James some enterpris- 



FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 75 

ing gentlemen in London had obtained a grant of land in America, 
and the right to plant colonies there. 

All the country, north of Cape P'ear, on the coast of North Caro- 
lina, had been called Virginia ever since Raleigh's first expedition. 
The gentlemen who held this grant from the king divided their 
possessions into two parts. One part they called South Virginia, the 
other, North Virginia. The former included all that tract lying be- 
tween Cape Fear and the Potomac River ; the latter portion lay 
between the Hudson River and Newfoundland. The strip between 
the two — comprising the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
Delaware — they agreed to leave for the present as neutral ground, 
where any one might settle, if he were a good and loyal subject of 
England. After thus dividing the land, the men who owned the 
grant, or pate7if, separated into two companies. "Those who took 
South Virginia were the " London Company ; " those who took 
North Virginia, the " Plymouth Company." 

Now settlement began in earnest. In April, 1G07, the first per- 
manent colony of Englhlinien was planted on this American soil. 
They were sent by the London Company to the same island of Roan- 
oke where Raleigh's ill-fated colonies had perished twenty years 
before. Fortunately tliey were driven by storms into Chesapeake 
Bay, and instead of building on the island they fixed their abode 
on the main-land, at the mouth of the James River in Virginia. 
This river they immediately named the James, in honor of their 
king, and they called the infant town which they then began to 
build in the wilderness, Jamestown. 

The principal men who were engaged in this settlement were 
Edward Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, 
John Ratclitfe, George Kendall, John Marten, and John Smith. 
Both Newport and Gosnold had made previous voyages to Virginia, 
and had explored the Sea-coast in that vicinity. 

Before setting out for America, the London Company had given 
Captain Newport, who commanded the expedition, a sealed packet, 
containing the names of those who were to form the council which 
was to rule and make laws for the colony. They were forbidden 
to break this seal until they reached Virginia. I confess I see 
very little sense in such an arrangement, for no one knew who 
had any authority, and they had hardly set out on their voyage 
before they began to quarrel about who had the best right to com- 
mand. One of their number. Captain John Smith, was a mark 



76 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

for the jealousy of all those who wished to keep the reins in their 
own hands. No one among the leaders of the new colony was so 
fitted to rule such an expedition. He was already very popular 
with the most part of the common people on the ship, and Wing- 
field, Ratcliffe, and one or two others, began to hate him bitterly. 
On some pretext or other, therefore, they caused Smith to be im- 
prisoned during the greater part of the voyage, and he was closely 
guarded till they got to Virginia. 

Then, opening their sealed orders, they found that Wingfield, 
Newport, Gosnold, Marten, Ratcliffe, Kendall, and Smith were 
appointed members of a council of which Wingfield was to be the 
president. 

Of all the men who came to America in these early days, no one 
man did more for the permanent establishment of English colonies 
than Captain John Smith. He Avas very brave and persevering, 
and he knew just how to do the right thing at the right moment ; 
and besides these qualities, he had led a life which was the proper 
apprenticeship for a man who would build up a colony. His auto- 
biography is more like a story out of a novel than any real life 
history, and to give you some idea of what kind of a man he was 
I must tell you briefly his story from boyhood, as he tells it himself. 

He was born in Lincolnshire, England, of well-to-do parents, and 
was sent early to school. But even then he was so full of adven- 
ture, that when only thirteen years old he sold his satchel and books, 
m order to raise money for a journey to a neighboring sea-port, that 
he might go to sea. Before this bargain was completed his father 
died, and that damped his sea ardor for a time. The guardians 
who were left in charge of the boy and his small inheritance, re- 
garded the property much more than they cared for him, and most 
likely were not sorry when he finally ran away. For as soon as they 
tried to apprentice him to a merchant, he did run away to France, 
in company with the sons of an earl who lived in the county where 
John Smith was born and brought up. In France, he and the 
young noblemen had many adventures, and he was at length fur- 
nished by them with money to return to England. But money was 
merely an incumbrance, and he got rid of it as quick as he could. 
Then he rendered some service to a Scotch gentleman in Paris, who 
gave him in return some letters to noblemen in the court of King 
James, asking them to introduce him at court. 

Back to England started Smith ; but before he was off the shores of 



FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 77 

France, lie concluded to enlist as a soldier, and fight with the Dutch 
against the Spaniards. Two years he was a soldier in the low coun- 
tries, — as Holland was then called, — and then he really went back 
to Scotland with the letters of introduction, which ought by this 
time to have grown somewhat musty. 

But though the noble Scots to whom he had been recommended 
offered to present him at court, he declared he had neither means 
nor inclination to become a courtier, and instead resolved he would 
go and turn hermit. On this he went into a wood, and, as he says, 
" built a faire pavillion of boughs," where he slept at night. By 
day he exercised with a good horse and threw the lance like a 
knight in a tournament. In his leisure he read the two books which 
made up his library. These were " Life of Marcus Aurelius " and 
*' Machiavelli's Art of War." But this singular hermit and his 
wonderful horseback exercises soon drew so many people to see him, 
that he got tired of the play, and went back to France to see if he 
could get another chance to turn soldier. 

After many wonderful adventures he came into Transylvania, now 
a province of Austria. Transylvania was then at war with the 
Turks, and John Smitli joined their army and made himself noted 
for his sagacity and brilliant exploits. He invented a kind of bomb- 
shell to throw into the enemy's camp, which in those daj^s was con- 
sidered a wonderful engine of war. 

At one time the Turks withdrew into a fortress on the Carpa- 
thian Mountains. The Ciiristians, preparing for a siege, encamped 
on the plain under the fortress walls. While the two armies waited 
a breathing space before commencing the siege, the Turkish 
governor thought he Avould have some sport to please the many 
fair ladies who had taken shelter in the castle walls. So he sent a 
polite message to the Transylvanian captain, saying that one of his 
bravest knights would be most happy to meet one of the Christian 
warriors, in single combat, down upon the plain where both armies 
could be spectators of the affray. The challenge was accepted, and 
Captain John Smith was chosen as the champion who should meet 
the Turkish warrior. 

The day arrived, and the Christians in their brightest and newest 
armor spread themselves over the green plain to form a ring for the 
two valiant champions. On the walls of the castle just over the 
plain the Turks had assembled as spectators, and many ladies flut- 
tered their brilliant scarfs, and waved their white hands when their 



78 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

warrior went out at the fortress gates. The heralds shouted, the 
drums beat, and out came the Turk in great pomp. By his side 
marched two black attendants, one bearing a lance and the other 
leading a horse in glittering trappings and saddle-cloth stiif with 
gold. The Turk himself was most gorgeousl}^ arrayed, and his 
splendid dress was completed by a pair of wings fastened on his 
shoulders, made of woven eagles' feathers studded with gold and 
jewels. I fancy this last must have been an awkward ornament to 
fight in. 

As for John Smith, he came out in plain soldier's clothes, with 
a boy bearing his lance, and rode up to the lists. Then with a 
few polite bows and exchange of courtesies the fight began. It was 
not a very long tussle. In a few minutes the Christians set up 
a shout, and the Turks uttered a cry, for their brave warrior's head 
lay rolling in the dust, while John Smith stood quite cool and un- 
harmed alone in the field. 

Two other Turks, eager to avenge their comrade, challenged Cap- 
tain Smith, and, one after the other, they shared the fate of the first. 
By this time the Turkish commander concluded it was too expensive 
an amusement to furnish to his lords and ladies in the castle walls, 
and the fight ended. The Transylvanian general rewarded Smith 
with a coat of arms bearing three Turks' heads, and a purse with 
three hundred ducats. 

Next we hear of our hero taken prisoner by the Turks, and sold 
as a slave in Constantinople. There the young Turkish mistress to 
whom he is presented as a servant, loses her heart to the gallant 
English youth, and in order to free him from bondage she sends him 
to a brother in Tartary with a letter, begging him to treat the 
stranger well for her sake. But the Tartar chief is furious at his 
sister's interest in a slave, and instantly claps a great iron collar on 
John Smith's neck, and sets liim to all sorts of the most menial 
drudgery. 

This is too hard to be b'orne by an Englishman of his spirit, and 
one day when he is threshing grain in a secluded place he has his 
opportunity for escape. His master, passing by, stops to taunt Inm 
and revile him in such a way as he cannot bear, and Smith suddenly 
hits him over the head with a flail and lays him lifeless ; then strip- 
ping him hastily of his clothes, he dresses himself in them and hur- 
ries off across this strange wild country. It takes him weeks to get 
to a place of safety, all the time in mortal fear of discovery from the 



THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. 79 

dreadful iron collar on his neck, which he can by no means remove. 
At length he comes to a Russian settlement on the River Don, gets 
rid of his slave-badge, and is furnished with means to get among 
friends. 

Wars and shipwrecks, and moving adventures both by land and 
sea, are always ready to wait on John Smith. Once when he took 
passage in a French ship, the Roman Catholic sailors insisted that 
he was the cause of a dreadful storm which oppressed them, because 
he was a heretic and an Englishman. So they tumbled him over- 
board into the raging sea. But he swam safely to a rocky island, 
where another ship soon picked him up, and he was dry and warm 
and ripe for new fortunes in a few hours. Whichever way he was 
thrown he always came down on his feet again like a cat. And 
when at twenty-eight years old this man came back to England and 
found every one excited about Virginia and planting colonies, he was 
in liis element and ready to join the first expedition which offered. 
And notwithstanding his harum-scarum life, Captain John Smith 
was bv no means a rattle-brain. He was a man of strono; common 
sense, full of expedients, ready in action, shrewd in his dealings 
with men. A little overbearing and fond of command, as such a 
man naturally would be. You will hear a good deal about him in 
the account of the settlements of the colonies, or I should not have 
given you so long a description of him. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. 

Smith and Newport explore tlie Country. — Smith taken Prisoner by Indians. — The Young 
Pocahontas saves liis Life. — New Arrivals in Jamestown. — Shipwreck of Gates and Somers. 
— Pocahontas taken Prisoner. — Marriage and Death of Pocahontas. 

When the sealed paper containing the names of the rulers of 
the colony was opened, as I told you before, John Smith's name 
was found to be among the number. But Wingfield, always 
Smith's enemy, refused to let him take his rightful seat in the 
council. This did not make Smith either sulky or discontented, 
and he at once joined Captain Newport in an expedition up the 
river to explore the country around Jamestown. In six weeks they 
returned, and Newport began to make preparations to go back to 
England to bring more men and supplies. Wingfield tried to make 



80 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Smith go back also. He pretended that he was causing discontent 
in the colony, but Smith insisted on renuiining, and on his trial 
taking place he was declared '' not guilty," by every voice. So 
much the most part of the colonists loved him, that Wiugfield 
dared no longer keep him out of the council, and he was admitted 
as one of the members. 

Now the colony began to suffer for food. Provisions and game 
became very scarce. In the midst of the distress it was found that 
Governor Wingfield was stealing the public stores and hiding them 
away that he mi^ht get I'icli from the necessities of the colony. At 
this he was quickly turned out from his office, and Ratcliffe made 
governor. 

About this time sickness of various kinds began to prevail in the 
colony. They were suffering from want of food, and from the great 
change of climate. They had grown disheartened and homesick. 
Through all their distress John Smith was the ruling spirit to cheer 
and encourage them. He persuaded them to build comfortable log 
houses. He had a church built in Jamestown, where they could 
assemble together for public worship, and Robert Hunt, a man of 
blessed memory, held services there. 

When affairs were at the lowest ebb, by dint of coaxing and 
threatening the Indians, Smith got a little corn from them, which 
relieved the distress of the colony. He kept up the spirits of the 
homesick by every device in his power. He found places where 
game abounded, and induced them to go hunting. Indeed, at one 
time Captain Smith seems to have carried the whole colony on his 
broad, helpful shoulders. Yet his fellows in the council so hated 
him for his very popularity and the useful qualities which they 
lacked, that in the midst of these labors they openly rebuked him 
because he had not yet explored to its source the river on which 
they were settled. On this, with a small party of men, he set out 
in a boat up the river. 

At a convenient point in the stream he left the boat and went to 
explore the banks, taking with him only one man and an Indian 
guide. In his absence some Indians fell upon the boat's crew and 
killed them. Then they set out upon Smith's track to take him cap- 
tive. They overtook his companion and slew him, and finally came 
up with Smith on the edge of a swamp. As soon as he saw his pur- 
suers Smith fastened his Indian guide to his arm with his garter, 
using him for a shield between himself and the enemy. And al- 



THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. 81 

though they were in large numbers he fought so gaUantly tliat it 
was only when he was up to liis knees in the swamp, and stiff with 
cold and fatigue, that he gave up. For some time after he had 
thrown down his gun and offered to surrender, the Indians dared not 
ai)proach to take him prisoner, he had filled them with such terror. 

When at length they lield him captive he diverted them by 
showing them a pocket compass and explaining its use. They car- 
ried him about with them for days, using his skill to cure their sick, 
and performing about him all sorts of wild dances and strange con- 
jurations. At last they held a long consultation as to what had 
best be done with him, and concluded they must kill him, since so 
great a man must be dangerous to their race. 

Smith himself tells the story of his deliverance, which is so roman- 
tic that it has subsequently been declared false. But the story be- 
longs to the annals of Virginian history, and could not be left out 
of the story of its first colony. It happened in this wise. 

He was brought out, as he declares, bound hand and foot, his 
head laid on a flat stone, and Powhatan, the chief, was preparing to 
dash out his brains with a war-club, when suddenly the little Poca- 
hontas, a daughter of the chief, ran forward, threw her arms about 
the neck of the prisoner, and begged his life. It was granted her, 
and Smith was released, and treated with every mark of kindness 
and respect. 

Whether the story be true or no. Smith came back to Jamestown, 
and found the members of the colony still plotting against him. 
But he defeated their designs, and in a few months, by the unani- 
mous desire of the people, he was chosen president of the council. 

At this time (1608), Newport came back from England with food 
and supplies, which, according to their wasteful custom, were lavished 
and spent, until they were as poor as ever, and Smith had to go and 
beg corn of the natives. In this year Powhatan planned to surprise 
the colony, and destroy it. He might have succeeded in this, if 
Pocahontas had not warned Smith, so that he Avas prepared for 
the attack. 

All this time. Smith's labors were untiring. He tried to induce 
the settlers to plant corn and useful products. He discouraged the 
raising of so much tobacco as bad for their interests. When all the 
rest had gone mad over some glittering sand from the river's bed, 
which they thought was gold, and wanted to send home a ship-load 
of it. Smith persuaded them out of that folly, and^sent instead 



82 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

a cargo of cedar-wood, which was a marketable commodity in Eng- 
land. 

In 1609, the company in London sent nine ships and a large 
number of men to Jamestown, with Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George 
Somers, and Captain Newport, as its leaders. These three gentle- 
men all went on one ship, and were wrecked off the Bermuda Islands. 
Seven out of the nine ships came safely to Virginia. But the men 
sent were poor material to build up a colony in a wilderness. In- 
stead of the hardy, industrious mechanics and workmen, who were 
wanted there, they had sent ship-loads of men who were idle and 
good for nothing at home, and worse than useless in America. 

As they had still no leader, Smith retained the command, and 
with great difficulty tried to keep order among them. At length 
he was so severely wounded by an explosion of gunpowder, that he 
was forced to go back to England to be healed. We shall hear of 
John Smith again, but not in Virginia, for he never after returned 
there. 

Six months after Smith had returned to England, Newport, Gates, 
and Somers, who I told you had been wrecked on one of the Bermu- 
das, made their appearance in the colony. They had rigged up one 
of thc'ir wrecked vessels, built a small pinnace from the remains of 
the other, and got off safel3^ The Bermuda Islands were uninhab- 
ited, and supposed to be barren, but the shipwrecked crew had suf- 
fered no lack of provisions. They had found j^lenty of swine run- 
ning wild all over the island, which furnished them with abundance 
of fresh meat. Many conjectures were raised to account for the 
presence of the hogs there. It is probable that a Spanish ship, 
loaded with supplies for its colonies, in the West Indies, had touched 
at the same point, and left some swine which had multiplied till they 
filled the island. It was a fortunate circumstance for Somers and 
his company, for it not only saved their lives while there, but they 
were able to salt enough to furnish them with food to Virginia. 

Of course the shipwrecked wanderers expected to find plenty of 
provisions in Jamestown, and it did not occur to them to salt down 
any pork for their use. It would have been well if they had done 
so, for on arriving in James River they found their friends in a 
state of great distress and destitution, John Smith was gone, and 
there was nobod}^ else who could bring order out of confusion, and 
make plans for their relief. 

Sir George Somers offered to take the pinnace they had built 



THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. 83 

and go back to the Bermudas, and bring her back filled with provis- 
ions, but they would not accept the offer. Sir Thomas Gates was 
appointed governor, and was so inefficient to keep up the spirits of 
the colony, that they all agreed to desert Jamestown and go to 
Newfoundland, to seek food and passage home from English ships 
there. Their preparations to leave were nearly completed, when 
they saw three ships with the English flag at their mast-head, sail- 
ing up the river. That was a welcome sight. It was Lord De la 
Ware, with provisions and men for their relief. This lord had 
been appointed governor of Virginia by the London Company. 
You will remember his name easily, because the little State of Del- 
aware has been named for him. 

He did many good things for the colony. He fought the Lidians 
who had been hostile, strengthened the fort, and set up a trading 
port where the Indians and whites might trade peaceably together. 
Then, his health failing him, he returned to England. 

After him Sir Thomas Dale came to be governor, with another 
ship-load of colonists, and in a year or two Sir Thomas Gates, who. 
had been back to the old country, returned with three hundred col- 
onists. 

They had still much trouble with the Indians, and Powhatan, 
father of Pocahontas, was not disposed to be friendly. During Sir 
Thomas Dale's governorship, it was proposed that the young Indian 
princess should be taken as a hostage till her father should make 
peace with the English. This was accordingly done, and the young 
Indian girl was kept on board ship in the harbor. I hope she was 
a willing hostage, for she deserved nothing but kind treatment from 
the .white man, as she seems always to have been his devoted friend 
and ally. She was now a young maiden of nineteen, and is said to 
have been really beautiful. At any rate she was charming enough 
to win the heart of a young Englishman named John Rolfe, who 
wished to make her his wife. The consent of the governor of the 
colony, and of Powhatan, was obtained, and in 1613 Pocahontas was 
married in Jamestown. Before her marriage she was baptized and 
christened by the name of Rebecca. But by this name she has never 
been called, and history knows her only as Pocaliontas. 

After her marriage she went to London, was introduced at court, 
and presented to King James. Every one was eager to see this 
young Indian princess and English bride. While in England a 
little son was born to her, who afterward returned to Virginia, and 



84 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



whose descendants are said to be living to this day. In the spring 

of 1617, as Pocahontas was 
just on the point of em- 
barking for America, she 
was t^ken ill, and died. 

There are few stories 
in history more romantic 
than that of Pocahontas. 
To the imagination, this 
dusky maiden, r e a r e d 
among savages, appears 
like a wild flower of the 
forest. And like the wild 
flower, which droops and 
dies when transplanted to 
garden or hot-house, so 
y V^ , <iJm!L ¥ ^ this little wild maiden died 

soon after she was taken 
from her native soil. 
Pocahontas. After the marriage of 

his daughter, Powhatan kept peace with the English during the rest 
of his life ; and the colonists did not suffer from Indian warfare 
until by his death his brother Opecancanough became chief of the 
tribes in Virginia. 

Opecancanough was not of so peaceful a temper as Powhatan, 
and in 1822 he made an attack on Jamestown and all the country 
around, and massacred hundreds of white men. In a few months 
the number of colonists was reduced from 4,000 to 2,500. Whole 
families were butchered on distant plantations, without opportunity 
for defense, and the name of Opecancanough was a word of terror 
in Virginia. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PLANTER IN VIRGINIA. 

How a Settlement was begun. — Exports of the Colonists. — Choosing Sites for Plantations. — 
Slavery introduced into Virginia. — Buying a Wife with Tobacco. —Life in England in 
1607. — A Virginia Planter's House in 16i9. 

Before I go any farther with the history of the English colonies 
in America, I want to give you an idea of the kmd of people who 



THE PLANTER IN VIRGINIA. 85 

came to Virginia to settle, what sort of homes they made in the 
wiklerness, and how they finally made Virginia a successful colony. 

When these colonies, which were sent from England, landed on 
these shores, of course their first impulse was to provide some kind 
of houses to shelter them. This they did by cutting down trees 
and making log-houses for themselves, and a fort into which all 
could retire in case of an attack from the Indians. 

They were often very careless about providing for winter, by 
planting corn and laying in stores of provisions, and for the first 
two or three years relied on ships from England to bring them sup- 
plies. But as soon as they were able to provide for themselves, the 
London Company demanded that they should send something home 
to pay for the expense of fitting out so many ships and men. You 
can see the company must have spent a great deal of money, and 
that they were a long time getting any return for it. 

All these early colonists had a strong hope of finding gold and 
rich treasures in Virginia, as Cortez and Pizarro had found it in 
Peru and Mexico ; and at first rumors were constantly afloat of dis- 
coveries of gold, now in one place and then in another. In John 
Smith's governorship, they were about to load a ship with glittering 
sand, which they had dug up in the river's bed and supposed to be 
gold. 

When they learned by repeated disappointments that there was 
no gold nor silver to be found, they very wisely turned their atten- 
tion to the natural productions of the country. In the first place, 
there was plenty of timber, which was exceedingly welcome in 
England, where there was a great want of building material for 
ships and houses. The huge trees in Virginia astonished the colo- 
nists. " One fir-tree in Virginia is able to make a main-mast for 
the greatest ship in England," writes one of the new-comers home to 
his relatives in England. Consequently, they soon began to cut 
down the timber, and to saw it up into clapboards and masts, and 
beams and door-posts, and all kinds of boards. Then also they be- 
gan to manufacture wood-ashes, and pitch and tar, to send back to 
England. Previously pot and soap ashes had been brought from 
Prussia, and commanded a high price, but now the colonies furnished 
them plentifully, and at a cheap rate. The tar and pitch was ob- 
tained from the numberless pine-trees of the forest. Then they 
sent great stores of deer and beaver skins, bought of the Indians, 
and quantities of salted fish caught all along the sea-coast. But the 
main staple of export in the colony was tobacco. 



86 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



This weed — which perhaps it would have been quite as well if the 
white man had never learned to use — had been introduced into Eng- 
land more than twenty years before. As near as we can find out, 
the homesick colony of Raleigh's, which Sir Francis Drake had taken 
back to England in his ship in 1586, carried this plant home with 
them. Sir Walter began to smoke a pipe immediately-, and in Queen 
Elizabeth's time, tobacco was fashionable, but very scarce. 

As soon as the colony at Jamestown tilled the soil to any extent, 
they began to raise tobacco. King James, who was a strange man, 
— a mixture of learning and foolishness, — strongl}^ discouraged the 
culture of tobacco. He thought it was not a good thing for the 
colony, and wrote a book to prove it was unwholesome. On this 

the company tried to substitute other 
things in its place. There were many 
mulberry-trees, on whose leaves the lit- 
tle silk-worm which spins silk depends 
for food. This led them to try and 
raise silk in Virginia. But this project 
failed. Silk is not a good product for a 
colony in a wilderness, always on the 
look-out for danger and attacks from 
Indians. The worms soon died, and 
there was an end of silk-culture. 

Then the company sent out some 
Dutch and Germans, and set them to 
glass-making and other manufactures. 
The English themselves at this time 
did not know how to make glass, and 
were very poor manufacturers, so they 
called in the aid of these foreigners, 
thinking the}^ would teach their colonies 
these arts. But I cannot find that much came of these attempts. 
Nothing succeeded like tobacco, and for a long time that was the 
principal export. 

There were two classes of colonists in the early settlement of Vir- 
ginia. The first class was that of the " master-planter," who owned 
a share in the colony, or had purchased lands of the company in 
London. These gentlemen paid their passage on the ships, and 
took many comforts from England abroad with them. When they 
arrived they selected their lands and chose sites for their houses. 




^^ ^ 



Tobacco Plant. 



THE PLANTER IN VIRGINIA. 87 

One planter sought for a pleasant spring of water near which to 
build ; another sought a green slope by the bank of a river where 
fish abounded ; still another found a good building site near a wood, 
where game and quantities of wild fowl could be shot ; and others, 
no doubt, half homesick at heart, saw a little spot which reminded 
them of their own bonny England, and so pitched their tents or put 
up their log-houses there. Thus, in a few years, many such planta- 
tions in the midst of tobacco fields and corn-fields, abounded all about 
Jamestown, and even extended into other townships and counties. 

As soon as the planters got possession of tliese large tracts they 
found they could not cultivate them all with their own hands, and 
as there were no people in this country who could be hired to do the 
hard work, the managers in London set themselves at once to work 
to provide for the want of laborers. 

They induced many young men to join the colony, on condition 
that they should go passage-free and be provided with all necessary 
food, clothing, and tools to work with for one year. In return, each 
of these men must choose a master among the planters, and serve 
on the land for seven years. These formed a second class, who 
were called " bound servants." These men had an excellent oppor- 
tunity to go to work and secure plantations of their own. The 
allotted working hours were only from six till ten in the morning, 
and from two till four in the afternoon, and a prudent servant 
could get a little patch of tobacco to cultivate on his own account ; 
from which he could sell the product, and lay up a nice little sum 
to buy a farm. 

Still there was danger that the master on a lonely plantation, if 
he were not a good and just man, might abuse his power over these 
bound servants ; and it Avas not altogether easy to get free-born Eng- 
lishmen to sign away their freedom for seven years ; so the great 
want in the colony, for hands to do the labor, still continued. 

In 1620, a Dutch ship, which had been trading to the East Indies, 
stopped at Jamestown, and sold them twenty negroes as servants 
for life. These were the first slaves ever sold to the English, al- 
though the Spaniards had been importing negroes into their colonies 
for many years, and English ships and sea-captains had engaged in 
the traffic. You must bear in mind this first landing of negro slaves, 
for it set the root of a great evil in these new colonies. Still, so 
pressing was the demand for labor,- that at length it was resolved in 
England to transport ship-loads of criminals and felons from prisons 



88 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and jails, and bind them to the phmters as servants. This was not 
a very wholesome thing for the colony, for it brought much vice and 
idleness into the new clean land. Still it was not quite so bad then 
as it would seem now. For in those days men were imprisoned for 
debt, and other much lighter crimes than we put people in prison 
for nowadays. No doubt many of these pondemned men were not 
hardened criminals, and became honest men when they had once 
more a chance to begin life in the young colony. 

Another great want was the presence of women among them. 
Many of the young men who were idle or unsettled would become 
steady citizens, if they could get tidy little wives to take care of 
their homes. Therefore, in 1619, the company sent over ninety 
respectable young women as wives for the unmarried men. Each 
man who took a wife in this way must pay for the expense of bring- 
ing her over from England. As there was little money, debts were 
frequently paid in tobacco, so that a wife cost the young man one 
hundred pounds of tobacco, and some paid as high as one hundred 
and twenty-five or one hundred and fifty pounds. It must have 
been a funny sight to see these bachelors go to Jamestown to choose 
them a wife. After they had paid their tobacco, I hope each had 
the privilege of choosing the one who pleased him best. As the 
prettiest young women were doubtless picked out first, the one who 
came last must have had rather a sorry choice in point of good looks. 
This bringing over of decent young women did much good, and 
helped to the prosperity of Virginia. When the young man got 
his wife and his log-house, saw his children playing about his door, 
and his fields of tobacco and corn spreading about him, he began to 
feel as if this new country was home, and ceased to long to go back 
to England. 

When you hear of the log-houses and the rude manner in which 
the early settlers lived, it may seem to you that it was very diffi- 
cult for men who had been brought up in a civilized country to 
endure such a life. But even in England, in those days, the man- 
ner of living was not very luxurious. Carpets were hardly to be 
found in the houses of the wealthiest. Glass windows were not 
seen except in the houses of the rich, and even then the nobleman 
who owned a set of glass windows took them about when he went 
from one of his houses to another, as we take our chairs and sofas. 
The common people of England, even the respectable classes, lived 
in houses where the floor was earth — perhaps instead of a carpet, 



THE PLANTER IN VIRGINIA. 89 

— thickly strewn with rushes. For beds they had coarse bags filled 
with straw, and frequently a log of wood for a pillow. Their food 
was of the plainest kind, and wheat bread was rarely seen except on 
the tables of the nobles. The people ate barley bread, which was 
very dark and coarse. And though England is now a garden, 
abounding in beautiful farms, at the time Virginia was settled, the 
country of Holland was the market-garden of England, and most of 
her vegetables were imported from thence. To complete our idea 
of England we must remember that they had no telegraphs, no rail- 
roads, no steam-ships, no gas for lighting houses ; the streets of 
their cities were not paved ; in the evening the streets wei'e not 
lighted. So after all, in coming to this country, so fertile, so pleas- 
ant in climate, abounding in fruits and fish and game, the first set- 
tlers did not have so many luxuries to leave behind them as we 
should miss to-day, if we went to live in some new, wild land. 

And in manufacturing enterprise, this country soon rivaled Eng- 
land. In 10.30 England had not a saw-mill in all her length and 
breadth, and that year saw one built in Virginia. Up to that time 
all boards had been sawed by hand. Think of all the boards being 
made in that way. No wonder they could not afford to have them 
for floors. Glass was made in Virginia, too, almost as early as it 
was made in England. At first they used oiled paper to let in the 
light. But by 1650 they had made great improvements. A num- 
ber of brick houses, with real glass windows, had been built in 
Jamestown. All over the country the planters were growing rich 
with their corn-fields and tobacco fields. They had thrifty orchards, 
too, and cider presses, and stores of oats, wheat, and barley. 

Already the country began to look comfortable and flourishing. 
Here is a little description of a planter's house, written by a gentle- 
man visiting in Virginia in 1649, when the colony was forty-two 
years old : — 

" Worthy Captain Matthew is an old planter of thirty years' 
standing. I must not omit to let you know this gentleman's in- 
dustry. He hath a fine house and all things answerable to it ; he 
sows yearly stores of flax and hemp, and causes it to be spun ; he 
keeps weavers, and has a tan-house where he causes leather to be 
dressed ; hath eight shoemakers employed in their trade ; hath 
forty negro servants, and brings them up to trade in his house. He 
sows abundance of wheat, barley, rye, etc. ; hath abundance of kine, 
a brave dairy, swine in great store, and in a word, keeps a good 



90 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

house, lives bravely, and is a true lover of Virginia. He is worthy 
of much honor." Add to this that he kept fine horses ; entertained 
his infrequent guests most hospitably ; was a firm believer in the 
King of England, and in the Church of England, and you can under- 
stand very well what kind of man the Virginia planter was when 
the colony was forty years old. Now I will introduce you to a very 
different kind of man, — The New England Plante7\ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A CHAPTER OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 

John Smith sets out on another Voyage. — Queen Elizabeth and her Father. — Bloody Marv 
persecutes the Protestants. — The Puritans. — The Cavaliers. — The Puritan Emigrants in 
Holland. — They resolve to buy Lands in America. 

In the year 1(314, Captain John Smith, who had been in England 
ever since his return from Virginia, set out on a new voyage. You 
remember I told you the gentlemen who owned the patent to settle 
in America had divided into two companies, the London and the 
Plymouth companies. The Plymouth Company owned the north- 
ern country, and this time John Smith went in their service. He 
went in and out the inlets of the coast of Maine, sailed to ]\Iassachu- 
setts and Cape Cod bays. Landing several times he collected a 
good stock of furs and fish, and went back to England. He drew 
a map of this country, and named many of the gulfs, bays, and 
islands. To the whole region that he had explored he gave the 
name of New Englayid. 

To only one group of small islands did this brave fellow give his 
own name. This is the Isle of Shoals, a rocky little group off the 
shores of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He also named a 
cape on the coast of Massachusetts, now called Cape Ann, '-'•Traga- 
higzanda^'' in honor of the Turkish lady who had loved him when 
he was a captive in Turkey. It was such a hard name I think the 
people found it too difficult to pronounce, and so it 'was soon 
changed. 

When Smith got back he made arrangements to go again with a 
colony, and did start in 1615. Before he was fairly out to sea 
his vessel was attacked by some Erench ships, which were not much 
better than pirates, and Smith was taken on board and kept prisoner 



A CHAPTER OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 91 

for some time. His vessel got away, leaving him in the hands of 
the enemy, and the expedition, which had thus lost its leader, was 
rained. One night in the dark he slipped down the side of the 
French ship, cut loose a small .boat which was fastened to her, and 
after great tossing about in stormy waters, reached England. He 
wrote after this two or three very interesting books about this coun- 
try, but never came here again. 

From this time little more is heard of him. When Pocahontas 
became Mrs. Rebecca Rolfe, and was visiting England, Smith went 
to see her, and that is the last thing we hear of him, except the fact 
of his death, which happened in 1631. I hope he had a pleasant 
home with wife and children to make his last days happy. He tells 
us that he spent many hundreds of pounds in Virginia and his voy- 
ages to New England, and yet, he says, " In neither of these countries 
have I one foot of land, nor the very house I builded, nor the ground 
I digged with mine own hands." Like Columbus, he might have 
said, " Thus the world rewards those who serve it, " — for truly no 
man served the colonies so effectually as Captain John Smith, of 
whose after life and death no record remains. 

Before I go on to tell you anything about the first colony in New 
England, I must explain briefly some religious matters in Eng- 
land which have much to do with this history. 

You remember the great Queen Elizabeth who has been men- 
tioned before in these pages. Her father was King of England many 
years before her reign, and was known as Henry the Eighth. This 
king had a quarrel with the Roman Catholic Church. Up to his 
time, England, like all the rest of Europe, had been Catholic. All 
Roman Catholic countries had to acknowledge the rule of the Pope 
at Rome, who was called " The Head of the Church." But Henry 
the Eighth, who did not believe in anybody but himself, and did not 
like a Pope over his head telling him what to do, one day said he 
would be the head of his own churcli, and it should be the " Church 
of England." , 

This made a great hubbub in the nation. Some of the people 
said they would not give up the Pope, and most of the priests de- 
clared the same thing. But a great many others were very glad of 
the change and helped it on. 

When Henry died his young son Edward was king. He was in 
favor of the Church of England party. But he died very young, 
and the crown went to his sister Mary. Mary was a Roman Cath- 



92 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

olic, and she brought back the priests and bishops of the Church of 
Rome, and told the Pope he was head of the church again, and 
tried to make all as it was before. 

In the mean time, a great many people in Germany and France 
had begun to be tired of the Pope too, and declared boldly that 
they wanted a simpler and purer worship than that of Rome. 
These people were called Protestants. You remember the Protest- 
ants in France were called Hugueiiots. 

A good many people in England had also become Protestants, 
and Queen Mary had hard work to turn them into Romanists again. 
When she could not do it by persuasion, she tried the very simple 
mode of hanging, or burning, or any other of those means formerly 
employed in converting people who did not believe as the stronger 
party believed. So many people were thus murdered in her reign 
that this queen has always since been called " Bloody Mary.'''' 

Well, Bloody Mary died, and Queen Elizabeth came to the 
throne. She was a Protestant. Like her father she would not have 
any Pope over her head, and was determined to choose her own 
priests and govern her own chui-ch. 

They had the great fight all over again, only this time the Prot- 
estants persecuted the Romanists, and torturing, imprisoning, hang- 
ing, burning, and the other modes of conversion went on as briskly 
as before. They did not call this queen " Bloody Elizabeth," 
though ; because she was so successful, nobody dared call her dis- 
agreeable names. Instead, they called her '•'■G-ood Queen Bess.''' 

After Elizabeth came James Stuart, son of Mar^^ Queen of Scots, 
as unkingly a king as ever wore a crown. His mother had been a 
Roman Catholic, but he was pledged to join the Church of England. 
The church in Elizabeth's time, and in his time, held to nearly all 
the ceremonies and beliefs of the Romish Church, and was almost as 
tyrannical over those who did not conform to it. 

Now many English Protestants had been driven into Germany in 
" Bloody Mary's" reign, and had got a good many new ideas there. 
The thoughtful people had seen so much of empty parades, of altar 
lights, saying masses, false miracles, and all sort of deceptions 
practiced by the priests on the people, that they were inclined to 
worship God purely and simply without any forms whatever. 
When they came back to England in Elizabeth's time, and found 
the church very like that of Rome in all save the Pope, they were 
grievously disappointed. 




A CHAPTER OF ENGLISH HISTORY. 93 

They cried out, " We have been banished, and imprisoned, and 
lost property and homes to get rid of Popery and worship God in 
our own fashion, and we don't want to conform to the Church of 
EngUind." 

Then Queen EHzabeth said they should conform, and when she 
said a thing she meant it. But these people, who were called Non- 
conformists, Dissenters, Presbyterians, and most of 
all, Puritans, kept increasing every year till there 
grew to be a large body of them. When King James 
came to the throne he promised to let them alone in 
peace, but as it was never the habit of his family to 
keep their promises he did not keep this. 

But the Puritans were still a growing party in 
England. Of course they were mucli the smallest 
party, because all the ease-loving people, or people 
who did not like change, or did not think much 
about religion so long as they were comfortable, op- a Puritan. 

posed them. But the Puritans were men who did think, who could 
not sleep o' nights for thinking, and being persistent and persevering 
they were a troublesome party even when a small one. 

Nearly all the court people and noblemen clung to the Established 
Church, or Church of England. They Avere called Cavaliers, to dis- 
tinguish them from the Puritans. Cavalier meant a gay, gallant 
gentleman ; and the name was a great deal more pleasant sounding 
than Puritan, and the}^ were much more Avinning and pleasant to look 
at than the latter class. In those days the rich gentlemen dressed in 
fanciful suits of bright colored velvets and satins, trimmed with gold 
and silver laces ; their breeches were short at the knee and ended in 
ruffles of fine lace ; their hats were decorated with long plumes ; 
their hands half hidden by the rich laces on the wrist-bands ; they 
wore flowing beards ; their locks were long, and scented and curled 
like a woman's hair ; indeed these men were as fond of the newest 
fashions in garments as a fine lady of to-day. Add to this descrip- 
tion that they uttered plentiful oaths, were generous, light-hearted, 
unprincipled, with swords ready to fly from their scabbards on the 
slightest pretext for a quarrel, and you have a picture of the English 
courtier in the reign of the Stuarts in England. 

The Puritan was of a different fashion. He wore sober colored 
clothes either black or purple, plainly cut. His hair was cropped and 
his chin shaven. Because his hair was kept so closely cut and his 



94 STOEY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

chin SO beardless, he was called " Roundhead "' by the Cavaliers. 
He uttered no oaths and was slower to quarrel. His speech was 
slow and measured. He discouraged mirth, and took life in solenni 
earnest. 

You can see that the beauty and grace, the bright colors and en- 
joyment of life, were pretty much all on the Cavalier side, while the 
Puritans had generally the greater worth and manliness, and the 
rigid virtues. 

I am nearing the end of my long departure from the main road 
of my story. In King James's time many Puritans, driven by perse- 
cution, had settled in the country of Holland, on the sea-coast. A 
little party were at Leyden with their minister, Mr. John Robinson., 
a very devout and pious man. These people heard much about the 
new colonies. I presume they read the published accounts of the 
new colonies in Virginia, and the efforts of the London Company to 
make settlements there. At any rate, they resolved to take their 
goods and families and go to America to make a home. 

They did not feel at home in Holland. The people around them 
spoke another language and had other customs. They feared their 
children growing up might be absorbed into the inhabitants of the 
country, and all trace of their birth and the religion they cherished 
so carefully be lost. So they sent two of their number, John Carver 
and Robert Cushman, to England, to purchase the right from the 
Plymouth Company to settle in their domains of North Virginia. 
They finally obtained this right from the company, on terms 
which were pretty hard for themselves and advantageous to the 
company. Then they tried to get the good will of King James. 
But the king, who had declared he would make the Puritans '" con- 
form or he would harry them out of his kingdom," would promise 
nothing at all. They were obliged to be contented with the fact 
that he did hot prevent them from going. 



CHAPTER XV. 

^ EMIGRATION OF PILGRIMS. 

The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth. — Landing in Massachusetts. — Treaty with Massasoit. 
— Struggles of the Colony. — Massachusetts Bay Colony formed. — The Apostle of the In- 
dians. 

In the year 1620 this band of people from Holland agreed to set 
sail. They had taken the name of Pilgrims — the old title of those 



EMIGRATION OF PILGEIMS. 



95 



pious wanderers who journeyed with scrip and staff to the Holy- 
Land, or the shrine of some saint where they wished to worship. 




Pilgrims Embarking. 

These Pilgrims, also journeying to find a place to plant their shrine 
for worship, embarked from Delft Haven for England in the year 
1620. They sailed for Southampton, wdiere two ships, the May- 
Jlower and the Speedwell, were made ready for tli^ir long voyage. 

Soon after leaving port the Speedivell was declared unseaworthy, 
and the two ships put back into the port of Plymouth. Here the 
company was divided, and those most 
needful to the colony put on board the 
Mayfloioer, which now set out alone. In 
this way many who had wished to go 
were left behind, because one ship was 
not large enough to take all. There 
were 102 souls on the Mayjloiver — men, 
women, and children, — when she left 
England.- 

For more than two months they were tossed on the ocean without 
sight of land. For nearly a month after they came in ^ight of 
land, they coasted up and down seeking an inviting looking spot to 
plant their town in the wilderness. At length on the 11th of 
December, 1620, at the head of a little harbor which runs up into 
the land from Cape Cod Bay, the Pilgrims left their ship to take 




Mayflower. 



96 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



possession of their new home. The shore was rocky and desolate. 
They saw no signs of any inhabitant. No refreshing verdure, nor 
the song of birds welcomed them. The ground was frozen, and the 
streams locked with ice. Kneeling on the rock on which they had 
first set foot, they named it Plymouth Rock, praising God mean- 
while for their safe deliverance from the perils of the sea. 

Then they went sturdily to work. There were no merry-hearted, 
careless, idle, improvident members in this colony, like those who 
had troubled John Smith in Virginia. These men were all terribly 
in earnest. They had known misfortune. They had been driv*^en 
from their own country years before by oppression. They had 
known home-sicl^ness and disappointment, and felt pangs as bitter 
as cold and frost could give. They eared little whether they lived 
or died, if they perished in their work of building up their church, 
and made a place for those who were to come after them. 

Well, they went to work to build their houses so that they might 
get under shelter and keep from freezing. They divided the whole 
party into nineteen families, and each family must build his own 
house, in order that one might suffer no more than another. 

I can fancy their axes ringing in the still winter days, as, to the 

sound of nothing gayer than a 
psalm tune, they kept at their 
work. I can fancy the roaring 
of the great fires which they 
built at night, of great piles of 
green brush- wood, to keep them 
warm, and frighten away the 
wolves, whose howling could be 
heard when darkness fell. And 
their fear of wolves was mingled 
with the dread of more fearful 
animals ; for in their ignorance 
of this new country they did not 
know but lions and tigers might 
lurk in the deep coverts of the 
Pilgrim Costumes. forcsts arouud them. 

When they landed the shores were deserted, but not long after- 
wards an Indian came towards them, exclaiming in their own tongue, 
" Welcome, Englishmen ! Welcome Englislnnen I " 

He had learned a few Eno-lish words from the boats which had 




EMIGRATION OF PILGRIMS. 



99 




Carver's Chair. 



visited the coast fishing for cod, and was very friendly to the white 
men. This Indian told them of Massasoit, the great chieftain of the 
Waumpanoags, who was in their neighborhood with sixty of his war- 
riors, all dressed in their best array of paint and feathers, secretly 
observing the motions of the colony. 

John Carver had before this been made governor, and in the 
name of the English he sent for Massasoit to come and make a 
peace with him. Massasoit came readily in answer to the invita- 
tion, and the two chiefs smoked a pipe together and made a treaty 
which Massasoit kept all his life long. 

The Indians told the English that all this shore where they had 
landed had been visited by a great sickness, from 
which nearly all the natives had died. This accounted 
for the deserted country they had found, and the Pil- 
grims beheved they saw the hand of God clearing 
a way for them in the wilderness. 

During this winter all the firmness and endurance 
of the colony were called into action. Governor 
Carver showed much wisdom in his early dealings with the Indians, 
but when the colony was three months old, he died. Brave Will- 
iam Bradford was made governor in his stead. Shortly after 
Carver's death they began to fear trouble with the Narragansett 
Indians, who were enemies of the friendly' Massasoit. One chief 
sent a snake skin stuffed with ar- 
rows to Governor Bradford, to show 
him he was his enemy ; but un- 
damited Bradford sent back the 
skin stuffed full to the jaws with 
gunpowder. After this answer the 
Indians do not seem to have cared 
to meddle with the plucky gov- 
ernor. 

Miles Standish was another Pu- 
ritan of indomitable pluck. He 
had been in the wars in Europe, 
and was the soldier of the colony. 
Where there was any danger he 
went straight to the front. He 
had brought over with him a little 
wife named Rose. I fancy her a signatures of pilgrims. 



Pes Sfandi- 



100 



STOllY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



rose-bud sort of woman, too tender for bleak winds and rough 
rocks, and they were obliged to lay her away in a snow covered grave 
very soon after coming to Plymouth. One after another they 
died. When spring set in after that first winter, only half their 
number was living. 

These are hard days to read about. Yet in spite of all obstacles 
they prospered. In this next year another ship came bringing 
others to join them. And in less than a year from the time they 
landed, they had sent home to the Plymouth Company, in part pay- 
ment of lands, " 500 pounds worth of furs and clapboards." 







Leyden Street, Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1874. 



In 1622 another colony sent out by the Plymouth Company 
came to Wessagusset, which is now called Weymouth, and settled 
there. These were not Puritans, however. They were nearly all of 



EMIGRATION OF PILGRIMS. 



101 



the English Church; and the Pilgrims, who had iiin away from this 
church, did not view with very cordial eyes the sight of a colony 
of this kind growing up so near them. 

In 1628, when this Plymouth Colony were grown hardy and well- 
rooted, a large emigration set in from England : for the Puritans 
there were every day growing more and more restless under perse- 
cution. Men of education and men of fortune — the kind of men 
usually averse to emigrating — were ready to leave England for a 
land where they would not be oppressed for their opinion's sake. 
Democratic ideas, the sort of ideas which grow into the making of 



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: S^Li^e^ 




fulfil- ^^^^c^mJ 



£-^^-^^X/U~~ 





Signatures of Massachusetts Bay Colonists 

a republic, had crept into the brains of some of these men, and 
made them eager to form a church and community on their own 
plan of government. A party of these Puritans, living principally 
in Lincolnshire and Dorsetshire in England, bought a tract of 
land of the Plymouth Company, and began making their arrange- 
ments to settle there. The first of these, led by John Endicott, 
came to Massachusetts, and settled in Salem. During the year 
1630, seventeen ships with 1,500 men came to the new colony. 



102 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

They founded the towns of Boston, Watertown, Charlestown, Lynn, 
and Dorchester. The first colony still kept the name of Plymouth, 
and had its separate governor. All the last named towns, including 
Salem, were united under the name of the " Massachusetts Bay Col- 
ony,''^ and their first governor was Mr. John Winthrop, a very noble 
name in the annals of the Puritans. 










About this time a good minister, named John Eliot, came to 
America, and devoted his life to the teaching of the savages. He 
is known as the " Apostle of the Indians." He worked among the 
savages in Massachusetts many years, learned their language, sat at 
their camp-fires, and slept in their lodges. He taught the men to 
till the ground with better tools than they had before known how to 
use. He taught the Indian women to spin, and the whirr of the 
wheel was heard in many a savage wigwam where Eliot had visited. 
He founded churches and schools, and taught the natives to read and 
pray. He translated for them a Bible into their own language, and 
this book was printed afterwards on the first printing-press ever set 
up in the American colonies. 

Such were some of the labors of this good man, who deserves to 
be remembered for his life of devotion and self-sacrifice. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 

Religious Intolerance. — Roger Williams's Banishment. — He finds Succor from friendly In- 
dians. — Providence settled. —Religious Freedom in Rhode Island. — Williams gets a 
Charter for his Colony. 

You have now seen something of the men who settled first in 
New England. Life seems much more severe and uninviting among 
the Puritans in their bleak wintry climate, than among the Cava- 
liers in Virginia. And in many respects they are less agreeable to 
contemplate. They had left their homes, spent their fortunes, and 
periled their lives, that they might have liberty of conscience, 



SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 103 

that is, the right to worship God as tJiey pleased. But having got 
this right for themselves they did not mean to give it to anybody- 
else. They had seen how powerful a thing for its people was an 
established church, and how dangerous it was to any religious society 
to permit any difference of opinion among its people ; and they kept 
strict watch over all their church-members to see that no one dis- 
puted any of their rules or dogmas. 

If they heard of a man who said anything against their church, 
they brought him before the council and admonished hira not to do 
so again. If he did it a second time, they banished him from the 
colony. 

Once in the dead of winter they banished two men, who were 
accused of having written home to England something unfavorable 
to their religious autocracy. Governor Winthrop of the Massachu- 
setts Bay Colony did not send them away from the settleuient until 
the weather grew warmer, because he was more humane than some 
of the others, and said he did not like to be the cause of their 
death. On this they reproved Governor Winthrop for being " over- 
tender in his administration of the law," aikl the governor peni- 
tently owned his error and said he would not do so again. 

As they were always talking about religious matters it is not 
strange that little differences were constantly springing up among 
them. One woman who called together a few others at her house, 
and claimed that every one had a right to interpret the Scriptures 
for himself, was accounted very wicked. Her name was Anne 
Hutchinson, and as she was a very clear-headed person and a power- 
ful reasoner, and made a good deal of trouble, she was banished, 
with all her family. 

Another woman who did not make quite as much disturbance as 
Mrs. Hutchinson, but yet held some opinions of her own, was pub- 
licly whipped at a whipping-post. She bore the whipping like a 
Spartan boy : but when they put a cleft stick on her tongue to con- 
vince her she had better not talk any more, the poor young woman 
burst into tears at the additional disgrace. 

Indeed, so frequent were these whippings and persecutings among 
the Puritans, that the friends of the colony in England began to 
remonstrate, and beg them to be a little more generous. It is nat- 
ural to suppose that among so many who came over here, in these 
early days, to get liberty to worship as they pleased, there were 
many men who would not i-elish the strict watch which the Puri- 



104 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



tans kept over everj'bodj^'s opinions, and would desire to have the 
freedom they had crossed the seas for. 

One such man there was named Roger WiUiams, who had come 

to Salem as minister. It 
was very soon found out 
that this new minister, 
who was a learned and 
very promising young 
man, did not altogether 
agree with the leaders of 
the Massachusetts Church 
in some points of religion. 
The difference between 
them was so small, that 
I don't believe you or I 
could understand it very 
well if w-e tried. I do not 
think Roger Williams 
w^as any less strict in his 
views than they were, ex- 
cept he did not believe in 
so much tyranny over 
everybody's conscience. 
The Massachusetts men tried hard to bring him to terms. Gov- 
ernor John Winthrop, Avho seems to have been a gentler sort of 
Puritan, tried his best, and entreaty and persuasion were used with 
him. But Roger Williams stood his ground. He was going to 
declare what he believed true. Liberty of conscience was what he 
came to America for. 

At length they concluded to take Williams and send him back to 
England to be rid of him. They had tried that remedy before with 
some Episcopalians who had gone quietly to worshiping in their 
own fashion. Roger Williams heard of their plan just before they 
were ready to execute it, and when they got to his house they found 
it empty. 

It was midwinter, one of those hard New England winters, when 
Roger Williams was thus driven from his home and family. For 
three months he was without home, almost without shelter, hiding 
from his persecutors. To the goodness of some friendly Indians he 
owed his life. 




SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND. 105 

Of these Indians he was able to purchase some lands, and, remov- 
ing his family, he soon drew many of his church in Salem after him, 
who had sympathized with his opinions. Here he built a town 
called Providence^ which was the first town built in the State of 
Rhode Island. 

In his colony Roger Williams declared that " all dwelling therein 
should worship God as they chose." There Catholic and Protestant, 
Baptists, Episcopalians, and Puritans, should say their prayers in 
their own fashion. In this colony rose the star of pure religious 
freedom. All honor to Roger Williams ! All honor to that little 
settlement which shone for years a bright spot in the midst of per- 
secution and bigotry. 

Roger Williams did not forget to be grateful to the Indians who 
had been good to him. He was a rare scholar, knew many lan- 
guages, and now he set about learning the Indian tongue. He was 
famous for his labors among them, and they loved him scarcely less 
than the good Eliot was loved. He was very dear to his colony too, 
and few men seem to have been more honored and loved. He 
had founded his little colony in 1636, and in 1642, when it had been 
.planted six years, and had grown and flourished, he went to Eng- 
land to get a charter from the king. Several other towns had, in 
the mean time, been built in Rhode Island, by, different parties of 
men who had been driven out of the Massachusetts colonies for 
their opinions. 

Williams remained in England nearly two years, and got a very 
liberal charter from King Charles I., which left the little colony 
almost entire freedom in its laws and the choice of its rulers. 

When he returned to Providence and was coming over the river 
to his home, he found the whole colony had 
come out in boats to meet hint. The old 
and young men, the women and children, 
were all embarked, and welcomed him with 
every demonstration of joy. Williams was 
greatly affected and touched by this wel- 
come, and felt that he never knew before 

Early New England House. 

how much his people loved him. 




106 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY 

CHAPTER XVII. 

WEST COUNTRY PEOPLE SETTLE CONNECTICUT. 

Settlers in Dorchester. — March to Connecticut River. — New Haven founded. — Traders and 
Fishermen settle New Hampshire and Maine. — Troubles in England. — The King beheaded. 
— Story of Oliver Cromwell. — Maine a Province of Massachusetts. 

You have now seen the beginning of three colonies in New Eng- 
land : the Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Rliode Island colonies. 
The next in the list of settlements is that of the colonies in Con- 
necticut. 

The people who had settled the town of Dorchester, near Boston, 
in the great immigration of 1630, were generally known as the " west 
country people." They were so called because they were nearly all 
from Dorsetshire, a county in England lying west of Lincolnshire, 
the county from which the larger part of Massachusetts Bay Colony 
had come. These Dorsetshire people had been accustomed to a 
mufch more fertile and pleasant country than that in which they 
were settled. They had brought over a large number of English 
cattle, and their cows and oxen had been used to better feeding- 
grounds than the salt marshes with their coarse grass, which sur- 
rounded their settlement. But they heard very soon of green pas- 
ture lands and smiling meadows in the valley of the Connecticut 
River which flowed southwest of them. It was also said that here 
plenty of rich furs could be had very cheap of the Indians, who had 
not yet learned to drive sharp bargains with the white man. Then 
it was whispered that the Dutch traders had already begun to come 
up this river, and would claim these beautiful lands if the English 
did not make haste to get them. 

Some Englishmen from Plymouth had already visited the banks 
of the Connecticut ; and one of the Indian sachems had sent to the 
governors of the two Massachusetts colonies, inviting them to send 
their people to build a town there. 

In 1635 a party of these Dorchester men got permission of the 
magistrates to remove to Connecticut. In the spring of this year, 
nearl}' half the males of Dorchester went down where the town of 
Windsor was afterwards built, and began felling trees and cutting 
logs for their houses. They found some Dutch encamped on the 
river and drove them away ; they found also a party of twenty set- 
tlers from Plymouth on the site of Windsor, and succeeded, by fair 



WEST COUNTRY PEOPLE SETTLE CONNECTICUT. 107 

means or foul, in getting them to surrender the ground. Then they 
set to work and made a clearing. 

They worked here all summer, and early in the fall went back 
to Dorchester for their families. They loaded a ship there witli 
household goods and with stores of provisions for winter, and sent it 
around Cape Cod to come through Long Island Sound, and up tlie 
Connecticut River to meet them. Then with the women and children 
they started to return on foot. The delicate women, and the little 
children, were put on horseback, and the sturdy men and women 
marched along on foot driving their cattle before them. 

It was late in October when they started, and this was slow 
traveling. The winter set in early, and the emigrants were fam- 
ished with cold. Many died on the route, and the cattle, unable to 
find fodder in the thick wood, died also, or wandered away and were 
lost. 

At last they took little heed of their beasts, except those which 
they rode, and made the best speed they coidd to their clearing. 
When they got there they found the river fast bound in ice, and the 
ship with provisions not yet arrived. A party of seventy men, 
women, and children, started down the river to meet it, eating 
acorns and nuts to keep themselves from starvation. Fortunately 
the river thawed before winter fairly set in, and they found the 
ship making its way up to them. 

They went back, and building a fort to protect themselves from 
the Indians, named the town Windsor. And thus began the first 
settlement in Connecticut. 

Three years after, another town was built at the mouth of the 
river and called the " New Haven Colony." This was a separate 
government till 1662, when it was joined to Connecticut and be- 
came a part of it. 

As you see, all these last three colonies were off-shoots from the 
Puritan emigration. But James I., who had never favored the 
Puritans and would promise to show them no favor, gave away a 
large part of New England to Fernando Gorges in the year 1620, 
the very year Plymouth was settled. This tract stretched over 
Maine and New Hampshire, and included part of Massachusetts. 

Fernando Gorges was a friend of the king and a member of the 
Church of England. He had for years been interested in Amer- 
ica, was acquainted with Captain John Smith, and was one of 
the company who sent this brave adventurer to survey the coast of 



108 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

New England. Maine was well known as a great fishing coast, and 
was famous also for the tall pines used for masts to English ships. 
After Gorges became proprietor of this tract of land, he was de- 
sirous to plant colonies there. 

The French, who claimed all Canada and the St. Lawrence region 
under the name of New France, had settled in Nova Scotia and en- 
croached upon the borders of Maine. Indeed it was a long time before 
the boundaries of this State were settled, as you will learn hereafter. 

Gorges and another gentleman, named John Mason, shared this 
large tract between them. The former took Maine, and Mason 
took New Hampshire. In 1623 the town of Dover was settled by a 
party of traders, who had dealings with the fishermen on the coast ; 
and shortly after, the town of Portsmouth was built on the sea-coast. 
This was the beginning of tlie State of New Hampshire. 

About the same time Gorges sent colonies to the towns of Saco 
and of York in Maine, and established a government there of which 
he was the proprietor in chief. 

Shortly after Gorges had received all this land from James I., that 
king died, and his eldest son came to reign in his stead. This son, 
who was known as Charles I., was certainly not much worse than 
his father, and perhaps intended to be a better king. But he dis- 
pleased the people very much. The Puritans in England had now 
grown to be a strong party, and had powerful leaders in the state. 
Oppression had brought out all their strength, while the Cavaliers, 
who had held power so long, were overbearing and oppressive and 
regardless of the rights of the people, who had come to sympathize 
with the Puritans and to look upon tlie court party as very corrupt 
and t^^rannical. 

Oliver Cromwell, a very able and ambitious man, was one of 
their leaders. He headed the Puritans in a war against the Cava- 
liers, and finally got King Charles into his power, and tried him be- 
fore a court of judges on the charge of treason against the liberties 
of the people of England. This court condemned him to death, and 
his head was cut off by the headsman in his own city of London. 

Then Oliver Cromwell was made Lord Protector of England for 
his whole life, and used that office very much as if he were king. 
There is a story told of Cromwell, that when a student in college he 
had once played in some drama with his comrades. In this play he 
finds a royal purple mantle and a golden crown, and puts it on his 
head. The story says that Cromwell played the part with great 



THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 109 

effect, and that his ambition was so stirred by it that he never rested 
all his life till he could wear the royal honors of a king. 1 do not 
know if the story is true, but it is certain that a very slight thing 
sometimes shapes the life of a man from his boyhood. 

Ambitious as Cromwell was for power, he made much better and 
wiser laws for the English people than King Charles or his pig- 
lieaded old father. 

Of course the Massachusetts colonies, settled by Puritans, had a 
better time when Cromwell was in power, because ,-^ 

they sympathized with his government and had 
always been of his party. They now claimed a 
right over the provinces of Maine and New Hamp- 
shire. Gorges had been one of the party of 
loyalists who remained faithful to the king, and 
his rights were not respected by the Puritans. Eariy wieeting-house. 
He seems, however, to have .been a sincere, honest man, and did a 
good work for America in his efforts to settle the country. 

From this time Maine became a province of Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, and remained so for many years, until she became one of the 
United States, and Fernando Gorges never regained his right as 
lord proprietor. 




CHAPTER XVHI. 

THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. 



t 



The Countiy of Holland. —How they keep off the Sea. — Dutch Traders. —Henry Hudson 
sent to America. — Hudson River discovered. — Fur-trade. — New York City begun. — 
Indians afraid of Windmills. — Warfare with Indians. — Kieft's Massacre. 

By looking closely on tlie map you will find on the sea-coast of 
Europe, hidden away beliind the islands of Great Britain, a little 
country called Holland. It is not of very great importance now, as 
a European power, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
especially at the time this country was settled, it was one of the 
brisk;est, busiest, most thriving places in the world. The people of 
this country are called Dutch, and they are an interesting people to 
read about. 

Holland is the queerest little country in Europe. It is a? flat as 
a pancake, lying so much lower than the ocean that the mighty 
waves are constantly trying to encroach upon it, and the whole face 



110 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of the land would be drowned out of sight, and all the houses and 
people swept away, if its undaunted inhabitants had not built great 
walls of mud and stone, and sticks and straw, as the cunning beaver 

builds his dam, to keep 
out their uncomfortable 
neighbor, the ocean. 
Those great beaver- 
dams, which they call 
dikes, are all along the 
sea-coast for miles and 
miles, and are planted 
thickly with willows, 
whose deep-striking 
roots help to strengthen 
the works and make 
the country look as if it 
were set behind a green 
hedge. All over the 
land are windmills, 
which keep up a perpet- 
ual whirring and whiz- 
zing of their sails like 
so many great birds. 
This persevering little Holland was far ahead of England in gen- 
eral comfort at the time of which we are reading. Her people were 
a nation of thriving merchants. Although she had hardly a stick 
of timber to cut in her length and breadth, she built more shij)s and 
better ones than England. She was also the market-garden of the 
latter country, and supplied the English with the turnips, carrots, 
green peas, and cabbages, which they were not yet good enough 
gardeners to raise at home. 

A large company of merchants, called the Dutch East India Com- 
payiy, brought all the luxuries of the East to the Dutch cities, from 
whence they were sold all over Europe. Tliis trade brought a 
greater degree of comfort into Holland than was then common in 
England. Many a merchant's house had stores of linen and stuffs 
of silk, hangings of tapestrj^ and even rugs for the floor, such as 
were oniy seen among the English nobles. They manufactured brick 
and glass, and many other useful materials, long before these arts 
were practiced in their neighbor country. 




Dutch Windmill. 




THE DUTCH IN AMERICA. Ill 

These Dutch, always on the look-out for a good opportunity to 
turn an honest penny, did not forget America. 
They began early to fix their eyes on this new 
country, and to examine into the facilities it 
offered for trade. * 

In 1609 an English sea-captain offered his 
services to the Dutch East India Company to 
go on voyages to America, if they chose to fit 
him out. This was Henry Hudson, a man 
who had already been on two voyages for the ^^^nry Hudson. 

Plymouth Company in England, to see if he could discover a pas- 
sage west to Asia. That was his hobby, as it had been the hobby 
of nearly all the great navigators since Columbus. So, in 1609, 
Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch East India Company in a little 
vessel called the Half-moon. It is said that Captain John Smith, 
who was a friend of Hudson, had told him that he had heard there 
WHS an open channel to the South Sea somewhere between New 
England and the. coast of Virginia. 

Hudson sailed for New England, and began to explore the coast 
for this far-famed passage. He anchored first on the coast of Maine, 
which was then a great wilderness of tall pine-trees. Then he sailed 
all along the coast of New England, which looked very lonely and 
bleak, for this was thirteen j'ears before the Pilgrims landed on Ply- 
mouth Rock, and there was not one white man on all its shores. 
From thence Pludson sailed southward to New York Bay, and then 
up into the harbor, and at length into the mouth of the beautiful 
river which now bears his name. This river he concluded must be 
the object of his search, the channel of which Smith had told him. 

This seems very absurd to us now, when every little place on our 
whole globe is laid down upon the maps. But Hudson did not have 
such maps. He was one of the men who, by their discoveries, have 
helped us to make them. Two hundred and fifty j^ears ago even 
the great sea-captains did not know so much about geography as a 
clever school-boy of to-day. 

Well, he sailed up and up the pleasant river, in the pleasant 
month of September. All along the banks, where now are fine 
country houses and pretty villages, were Indian wigwams and fields 
yellow with Indian corn. And the savages, hooting and yelling 
trooped to the shores to see the strange canoe of the pale-faces sail by. 

Pretty soon the Indians began to venture to the ship, bringing 



112 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

corn and other vegetables in their boats. Hudson gave them, in re- 
turn, axes, and knives, and shoes, and cotton cloth. Of course, 
these were all curiosities to the wild people of the forest, and they 
hardly knew what to do with them. ,The next time they came to 
the ship, the chiefs had strings of shoes around their necks, and axes 
and knives strung about their girdles as ornaments, just as they 
Avore chains of beads and wampum. 

At first the Indians were friendly ; but no matter how pleasantlv 
the Englishmen and the savages began each other's acquaintance, 
they were pretty sure to end in fighting. So it happened in this 
case, and in a skirmish they killed one of Hudson's oldest sailors. 
The others buried him on the shore, and left him there close by the 
river he had aided to discover, where its gentle waters ebbed and 
and flowed over his lonely grave. 

When Hudson had got up as far as the spot where the city of 
Albany now stands, he found his supposed channel had grown nar- 
rower and narrower, until here he was stopped altogether. No 
longer was the stream deep enough to sail his ship. He sent boats 
on farther ; but they confirmed his growing suspicion that, after all, 
it was only a river which he had been exploring. So back he sailed 
between the shores crowned with oak-forests, or fringed with fields 
of Indian corn, down between the rocky Palisades, which remain to- 
day unchanged by the hand of Nature or of man, just as Hudson 
saw them so long, long ago — out into the Narrows, and back across 
the ocean to Holland. 

From this time the Dutch claimed all the country about the Hud- 
son, and called it New Netherlands, after one 
of the names of their own country. 

Hudson's other voyages were made up in the 
regions of Hudson Bay and those frozen lands 
of North America. There, on his last voyage, 
still searching for the western passage, his crew 
mutinied, set him adrift with seven others in a 
The Half-moon. little boat, aud left him to starve. So the brave 

sailor and those who were with him were never heard of any more. 
These voyages of Hudson and others in which the Dutch traders 
had taken part had given them an inkling of the valuable furs that 
could be bought so cheap of the Indians in the great hunting 
grounds of America, and put it into their heads to establish a fur 
trade on the western continent that should rival their trade with 




THE DUTCH IN AMKRICA. 113 

the East Indies. They therefore bought a grant from the govern- 
ment of Holland of the land it claimed through Hudson's dis- 
coveries, and formed a West India Company. 

The company knew of a little island in the mouth of Hudson 
River called Manhattan by the Indians. They decided they would 
make this island a trading port or depot for the fur trade, where 
their ships could come in, after an excursion for fur, and also where 
they could keep up a trade with the surrounding Indians. In the 
country about Hudson River they could get quantities of deer, 
otter, and beaver skins. The beaver skins were used for making 
hats, and you often see men's gloves nowadays made of the soft 
fur of the otter. Away to the north about Hudson Bay, the furs 
were still more valuable. They got there the skins of mink, mar- 
ten, ermine, and sable, such as ladies' furs are made of now. 

For several years the Dutch carried on this trade, before the}'- 
began to build a colony. They had a few log huts on Manhattan 
Island where the fur dealers and trappers lived, but there was no 
settlement there until long after these were built. 

Holland had been for many years a country of refuge for people 
who had been persecuted for their religion in their own land. 
From Holland, you remember, came the first English to this coun- 
try. In another part of the country were settled many French 
Protestants, as the Huguenots of whom I have told you. These 
French-Dutch people were called Walloons, and in 1623 a party 
of them, thirty families in all, decided to come to New Netherlands. 

These thirty families came over and scattered about in different 
places. A few went up the Hudson and began the city of Albany. 
Others settled in Long Island, a few went into New Jersey, and 
the rest, eight families in all, settled on the island of Manhattan, and 
began what is now the great city of New York. 

A year or two later the Hollanders began to send out more men 
and cattle, and materials to build houses. A little fort was built on 
the end of the island, and the town was named New Amsterdam^ 
after one of the richest cities in Holland. 

This new colony soon showed the same spirit which had made the 
little country across the water one of the most prosperous in Europe. 
As they were ship-builders at home, so the first ship bidlt in the 
American colonies was made by the Dutch. They put up the first 
saw-mill ever used here. This was driven by wind power, as so 
manj^ of their mills were in Holland. Very soon after they came 




114 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

here, these windmills began to dot the landscape all about New 
York with their whirring sails. 

The Indians were afraid of these strange monsters by means of 
which the pale-faces could saw their boards and grind 
their flour. They would sit hours staring at one as it 
revolved, with mingled awe and wonder. Sometimes 
when they got a chance they would burn them down, 
believing them to be the work of evil spirits and only fit 
to be destroyed. . 

When the Dutch first came to Manhattan Island 
they bought it of the natives, and made with them a 
treaty of peace. They gave twenty-four dollars in wam- 
pum for the whole island where the great city of New 
York, worth millions and millions of dollars, now stands. 
For many years they lived peaceably with the savages, who kept 
the treaty very faithfully. But about 1640, several acts of blood- 
shed were committed by the Indians, and quickly retaliated by tin; 
whites. The Dutch, as well as the English, used the law of " blood 
for blood " in dealing with the savages, and in most cases the white 
men were quite as much to blame as the poor untaught red men. 
In one respect the former were the most guilty, for they furnished 
the whiskey and rum which made the Indians ripe for deeds of 
bloodshed. Until the white men came here the Indians had never 
known the use of intoxicating liquor. They called it "■ fire-water,"' 
which was a very suitable name for the vile stuff, and it caused them 
to do many deeds they were sorry for when sober. 

For two or three years the ill-feeling between the colony and the 
savages was kept up, till in the year 1(342, when William Kieft was 
governor of the colony, a general slaughter of the Indians was ic- 
solved upon. Some of the milder-tempered in the colony, among 
whom was David de Vries, one of the first settlers and a man much 
beloved by the savages, tried to prevent this design. But Kieft was 
a violent, unreasonable man, and would not give up his cruel purpose. 
One winter's night in 1643 they crossed over to the Jersey 
shore, where an Indian encampment w^as set up, and took it wholly 
by surprise. So sudden and so terrible was the attack, that the 
savages had no time to take up their weapons, and did not know 
who were their foes. Many of them thought it was another Indian 
tribe with whom the}'- were at enmity. Nearly all the party, men, 
women, and children, were killed. Many were driven into the 



THE SWEDES IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE. 115 

river and drowned. Never was there a more pitiless and bloody 
slaughter. 

After this, a terrible warfare raged between the two races. Woe 
to the unfortunate family of white people who lived too far from 
the colony to receive its protection. Many whole families were sur- 
prised and slain. Sometimes the lonely farm-house would be en- 
tered when the husband and father was away, and all the women 
and children would be murdered. The women at their spinning- 
wheels would look up to behold a huge Indian entering silently with 
his tomahawk upraised to cleave their skulls. Babies would be torn 
from their mother's arms and their brains dashed out before her 
eyes. Many a brave woman learned to fire a musket and defend 
her home against Indians. Long had the colony cause to regret 
the cruel attack planned by Kieft which had brought on this war 
and made so many homes desolate. At this time Mrs. Anne Hutch- 
iiison, who, you recollect, had been driven out of Massachusetts by 
tlie Puritans, and was now settled on Long Island by the Dutch 
settlers, was slain, with all her family. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SWEDES IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE. 

Peter Mimiit and his Colony of Swedes. — They buy New Jersey for an Iron Kettle. — New Jer- 
sey claimed and named by Three Nations. — A New King in England. — New York City be- 
comes an English Colony. — New Jersey named by an English Nobleman. 

The governor of the first colony of Dutch who came to settle in 
New Amsterdam, was Peter Minuit. He quarreled with the West 
India Company after a time, and in order to revenge himself on 
them went to Sweden to see if he could not bring a colony of his 
own from thence to America. Sweden was a powerful and pros- 
perous country, and was naturally anxious to get a part of the New 
World, which was being so generously divided among its people by 
the other powers of Europe. Queen Christina of Sweden was only 
twelve years old, but the kingdom was managed for her by very 
able men. They favored the design of Peter Minuit and fitted him 
out with ships and men. 

They went to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, and sailing up the 
river, built a fort, called "Christina" after their queen. It was 



116 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



near where the city of Wihnnigton, Delaware, is built. They bought 
of the InJians all that part of Delaware and New Jersey which lies 
between Delaware Bay and Trenton Falls, and named it Neiv Swe- 
den. I have heard the}^ gave an old iron kettle for all this land. 
We should consider that a very good bargain nowadays. After 
this land was purchased the Swedes began to scatter over this part 
of New Jersey and make farms and build houses. 

But they did not long remain in undisputed possession. All 
this part of the country had been granted to Sir Edmund Plo}^- 
den by King Charles I., and in 1634, four years before the Swedes 
came, a number of English gentlemen liad begun laying out plan- 
tations "in the more 
northern part of New 
Jersey, on the River 
Passaic, The Dutch 
also claimed this land, 
and some of the Wal- 
loons had settled here 
earlier than the Eng- 
lish. So you see there 
were three nations 
claiming this one lit- 
tle State. It had three 
names, also. The 
Swedes called it New 
Sweden, the Dutch, 
New Netherlands, and 
the English, New Al- 
bion. 

After the Swedes 
were fairly estab- 
lished there, a part of 
the New Haven col- 
ony came down to 
New Jersey and be- 
gan to build very near them. But the Dutch, who were more 
jealous of the New Haven people than any others, immediately 
came down with ships to resist their encroachments. The English 
had driven away the Dutch from the Connecticut River, and the 
colony at New Haven were settled on one of the very points which 




THE SWEDES IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE. 117 

the Dutch had wished to keep for their own. So the Dutch were 
very glad to unite with the Swedes, and help them drive the Eng- 
lish out of New Sweden. For some time now the Swedes were left 
alone, but in 1651 a new governor of the Dutch colony at New 
Amsterdam, named Peter Stuyvesant, came down and took the 
Swedish fort and town, and brotight it all under Dutch rule. The 
Swedes gave in very peaceably, and this was the end of their colonies 
in America. 

But there was not a very long triumph for the Dutch in their 
Swedish possessions. Before I tell you how they came to lose them, 
however, I must tell you about some changes which had been tak- 
ing place in England. 

Oliver Cromwell, after being made Lord Protector of England, 
had ruled a number of years very quietly. But death overtook him 
in the midst of his power, and after his death nobody among the 
Puritans was bold enough or strong enough to take up the crown 
and put it on his head as Cromwell had done. Oliver's son Rich- 
ard tried to rule, but he was too weak to hold the power, and the 
people, seeing all things unsettled, began to think they wanted 
their king again. 

Charles I. had a son Charles, who was now in France, where 
all the royal family had fled when the king was beheaded. The 
English people sent for this son, and he was brought back to Lon- 
don, crowned king, and seated on the throne where his father and 
grandfather had been seated before him. He was a good-natured, 
dissipated, indolent, unprincipled, generous, untrustworthy young 
fellow, and was if anything more unfit to be king than his prede- 
cessors. This bringing back of the Stuart family to the throne 
they called the " Restoration^^'' and all the Cavaliers were in high 
feather about it. 

Charles IL began giving away his lands in America at a great 
rate. He spent money faster than a mint could have coined it, and 
kept his pockets as empty as a beggar's the most part of the time. 
And as for land, Columbus might have found a continent every year 
or two to furnish this improvident king with acres enough to give 
to his friends and companions. 

One of the first things he did was to give away all the territory 
Avhere the Dutch and Swedes had settled, to his brother James, the 
Duke of York. This was in 1664, and while that same stout old 
Peter Stuyvesant, who had conquered the Swedes, was still governor 



118 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

there. James sent over a fleet of English ships, which after some 
little trouble took the island of Manhattan, and rmi up the English 
flag over the whirring windmills of New Amsterdam. 

Peter Stuyvesant found it hard to give up, but there was no help 
for it, and for that time the Dutch rule ended in America, and the 
city of New Amsterdam became New York, so called after its owner, 
the Duke of York. 




t\iew York in 1664. 



The Dutch settlers remained, however, and they have left many 
traces of their customs and manners on the State and city ; and many 
of the villages and towns on the Hudson still bear their Dutch 
names. 

James sold his right to New Albion, as the English still called it, 
to Sir George Carteret, a noble Cavalier who had fought for the 
crown ; and it was then named New Jersey, in honor of a gallant 
defense of the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel, Avhere Carteret 
had commanded. 

Thus these flourishing colonies came under English rule, without 
any of the trouble of settlement or clearing the wilderness. And 
thus New York and New Jersey, as well as Virginia and New 
England, became colonies subject to the crown of England. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 

Lord Baltimore and the Carolinas. — Roman Catholic Colony. — Indian Wonder at the Big 
Canoe. — Freedom to worship God. — Papists and Puritans. — Lord Baltimore's Ambition. 
— Maryland one of the King's Colonies. — Ribault and Raleigh's Unsuccessful Colonies. — 
The Carolinas settled again. 

By the terms of the charter of the London Company, as I have 
before explained to you, all the land between Cape Fear and the 
Potomac River was called South Virginia. In 1632 a nobleman in 
England named Sir George Calvert, Lord of Baltimore, had ob- 
tained a grant of all that part of South Virginia \ymg on Chesa- 




SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 119 

peake Bay no7'th of the Potomac River. This Lord Baltimore had 
been a member of the London Company, which had owned South 
Virginia. The Calvert family were Roman Catholics, and since the 
time of Elizabeth you know it had been very unpopular, and almost 
dangerous to be a Catholic in England. George Calvert lived in the 
reign of Charles I. (the monarch who afterward had his head cut 
off), and he was so strong a friend of the king that, in spite of his 
religion, Charles was glad to grant him any favors he could. 

Lord Baltimore's design was to plant a colony in this new world, 
where the people of his church might wor- 
ship peacefully, and he once sent a band of 
colonists to Acadia, which is now called 
Nova^Scotia. But it wag so cold and bleak 
there that he became discouraged. Just 
after he had obtained the grant of the lands 
on the Chesapeake Bay, lie was taken ill 
and died. He did not see his phms carried 
out after all his labors. 

His lands fell to his son Cecil, who was 
now Lord Baltimore, and he sent his brother '-°''' Baltimore. 

Leonard with a colony to America. All these people were Catholics, 
and among them were a number of Jesuit priests, who came for the 
humane purpose of Christianizing and civilizing the Indians. In the 
fall of 1633 this colony arrived, and sailing up the Potomac, began 
building a town on its north bank, which they named St. Mary's. 
They called all their country Maryland^ in honor of the queen of 
Charles I. Her name was Henrietta Maria^ and as she was a 
devout Catholic herself, she sympathized with, and had probably 
aided the colony. 

The Indians in this part of the country were not accustomed to 
the sight of the white men, whose settlements were some distance to 
the south of this. They ran to the shore to welcome the new-comers, 
and ran back again to the woods to tell their comrades that there 
was " a canoe as big as an island with as many men in it as there 
were trees in the forest" had come to their land. They did not 
kjiow that a ship was built board by board, and they wondered wliere 
a tree could grow big enough to hollow out such a great canoe. 

Lord Baltimore's colony bought the land about St. Mary's of the 
hidians, paying them with axes, lioes, and yards of cloth for cloth- 
ing. They set up a cross in the \vilderness, and from the first tried 



120 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

to win the Indians to the Christian religion in the same mild 
way John Eliot used in Massachusetts. One law passed by Lord 
Baltimore does him honor. He decreed that all persons in that 
colony should worship God in their own way without interference, 
or any persecution on account of their religion. The only people 
they left out of this liberal law were the Unitarians. They would 
not allow them any rights there. Like Roger Williams in Rhode 
Island, they were unusually generous about making laws over 
any one's conscience. On this account many Puritans from Vir- 
ginia who had been persecuted by the Episcopalians, or Church of 
England party there, came to Maryland ; Quakers came from ]\Ias- 
sachusetts, and the colony grew rapidly. 

Previously to the coming of the Catholics, however, a. man 
named William Claybourne had settled on an island in Chesapeake 
Bay, and treated with the Indians in Maryland. Naturally he did 
not relish the coming of this new colony, and tried by all the means 
in his power to prevent its growth. As soon as the Puritan party 
there began to grow stronger, he found them a great aid in his ani- 
mosity against Lord Baltimore. For no sooner did the Puritans 
begin to grow influential, than their intense dislike of " Popery and 
Papists " made them rather too inclined to be forgetful of the liberal- 
ity which had been shown them in Maryland. They had fled from 
Virginia to escape the persecution of the Church of England, and as 
soon as they waxed in strength elsewhere, they began to desire to 
oppress the Quakers and Catholics. I think it would have been 
better if they could have all agreed to worship God, each in his own 
way, and let each other alone. But that easy way of settling a 
quarrel never seems to have occurred to people in their wars about 
religion. 

Lord Baltimore, the lord proprietor of the colony, wished to be 
the undisputed ruler of his property in Maryland. He was ambi- 
tious to be a great baron, who should be accovmtablS to nobody. 
In all his laws and decrees he said little about the king's authority, 
but spoke only of himself. It had been the custom of the province 
to ask all who joined the colony to take an oath of fidelity to the 
"lord proprietor," and swear to serve his interests. This oath was 
not relished by the Puritans, who grew to hold a large majority in 
two counties of the province, Anne Arundel and Kent counties. 
As soon as Oliver Cromwell came in, they rebeled and would show 
no allegiance to Lord Baltimore, who, they claimed, took on himself 



SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND. 121 

the rights of a king. They said, " we will only recognize the Par- 
liament of England." There was a good deal of quarreling for sev- 
eral years, and some bloodshed. In 1654 the colonists drove away 
George Stone, who was Lord Baltimore's governor, and took the 
colony into their own hands. 

The Calverts were always royalists at heart, although they kept 
very quiet about their opinions Avhile Cromwell was in power ; but 
when Charles Stuart was restored he gave them their power again 
in Maryland, because he knew they had always been his friends. 
They governed it for thirty years, till William and Mary became 
king and queen (you will hear more about them hereafter), and then 
it was made a province of the crown of England and was called one 
of the kiiif/s colonies. 
/^-^ I trust you have nt)t forgotten poor John Ribault's attempt to 
settle at Port Royal in the present State of South Carolina., and the 
unsuccessful attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to found colonies on 
the coast of North Carolina. It was Ribault who gave the Caro- 
linas their name in honor of Charles IX. of France. For a long 
time, however, these States were not divided, but both bore the 
name of Carolina. 

After Raleigh there was no attempt to settle until the time of 
Charles II. A small company of Puritans from A^irginia had gone 
there to escape the persecutions of the English Church, and had built 
a town called Albemarle. In 1663 Charles II. gave the Carolinas 
to eight noblemen of his court, who began to send out families to 
settle there. They took with them a code of laws drawn up by a 
celebrated philosopher named John Locke. But they found that 
they were obliged to make quite different laws when they got to 
America, to suit the condition of the country. Wise as he was, Mr. 
Locke was not wise enough to know what was best for people in a 
wild country never inhabited by civilized men. 

Part of the colonists to Carolina went to Albemarle, and that 
made the beginning of North Carolina. A part went farther south, 
and laid out the town of Charleston, and that was the first town of 
South Carolina. The new towns grew rapidly. People began now 
to pour into the fertile Carolinas. Swiss, Irish, and German Prot- 
estants came there, and a good many Quakers came also. One of 
the best governors they ever had was a good Quaker named John 
Archdale. The people loved him dearly. They had a great deal 
of trouble with their governors sometimes. The eight owners in 



122 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

England would choose any man to whom they wanted to give an 
office, and he would take ship and come over to rule the colony. 
Often, all he cared about was putting money in his purse. He did 
not care whether the colonies prospered or not. 

The Carolinas had trouble with the Indians, and trouble with 
pirates too, who were so bold that they would sail up almost into 
Charleston harbor and take the ships trading there. Then they 
were close by Florida, which was still owned by the Spaniards, 
who were always their enemies. But they would have prospered if 
it had not been for their bad governors, and did prosper in spite of 
them, till they could bear them no longer, when in 1719 they got 
the king of England to take them as his own colonies, like Massa- 
chusetts and Virginia. After that they went on quite smoothl}^ for 
a great many years. The king named the two provinces North and 
South Carolina, Albemarle being the largest town of one, and 
Charleston of the other. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 

Persecution of Quakers. — William Penu, the Admiral. — His only Son turns Quaker. — Dress 
and Manners of Quakers. — Young Penn inherits his Father's Wealth. — He brings a Colony 
to America. — Treaty with Indians. -7- City of Brotherly Love. — Naming of Pennsylvania. — 
Delaware made a Separate Colony. 

Through all this period in which so many settlements were 
being made, there was a large tract of country between Virginia 
and New York which had not yet been given away b}^ that generous 
beggar, King Charles II., to any of his friends or boon companions. 
This large tract, which is now the State of Pennsylvania, was quite 
neglected. The Swedes and Dutch had gone up the Delaware River, 
and there were planters near Trenton, New Jersey, and in the vi- 
cinity of Wilmington, Delaware. English, Quakers, Puritans, and 
Church of England people had also come into these two little States. 
But great broad-acred Pennsylvania lay unowned and unclaimed 
except by Indians. In 1681 all the land was granted to William 
Penn, a celebrated Quaker, of whom I am now going to tell you. 

I liave spoken a great many times of the Quakers, a large number 
of whom had left England and come to this country, for the same 



THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 123 

reason that the Puritans came, — that they might have Hberty to 
worship God in the way they liked best. But they did not fare 
nuich better in this country than in England. In Massachusetts 
they had been most vilely treated, even to the cutting off their ears 
and slitting open their noses. They had been whipped in the streets 
and had their tongues put in cleft sticks for pi-eaching what they be- 
lieved to be true. To this day, on the beautiful Common in Boston, 
Massachusetts, an elm-tree is standing, on whose boughs the Puritans 
hanged a woman named Maiy Dyer, because she was a Quaker and 
preached their doctrines. Very good doctrines they were, too, teach- 
ing lessons of peace and good-will to men, and telling people not to 
go to war, but counseling all to live in peace and love together. No- 
body who is born in humane and liberal Boston to-day can remember 
the hanging of Mary Dyer without being ashamed of his ancestors. 

In England the Quakers had a hard struggle to maintain their 
faith. But still their numbers grew and grew, and very early the}- 
looked to America as a land of refuge, where they could live in 
peace. 

In the court of Charles II. there was a noted admiral named 
Sir William Penn, who had been made a baronet for his services to 
his country. This nobleman had a son William, on whom he lav- 
ished all his hopes. All possible pains were taken with his educa- 
tion. When only a boy he was sent to one of the best colleges in 
England. But in college he met with a young Quaker, who con- 
verted him to his religion. When young William Penn went back 
to his father, the old gentleman was outraged and horrified beyond 
description to find his son had turned from the Church of England, 
in which he was brought up, and had become one of a despised sect, 
on whom Sir William looked with contempt. Worse than that. Ids 
son — the son of a warrior who had fought battles for old England — 
had become a man of peace, who hated war, and said, " If a man 
smite thee on one cheek turn to him the other also." The Quakers, 
too, were plain in dress, and would not wear the gorgeous clothes of 
the Cavaliers. Instead, they wore broad-brimmed hats, drab-colored 
clothes, and long-skirted coats. They said " thee " and " thou " 
instead of " you." They did not take off their hats to any man, and 
all their habits were unlike those of the court of King Charles, and 
consequently very shocking to the proud old admiral. 

Sir William Penn scolded and argued and raved. He sent the 
young man to the Continent of Europe, hoping that he might there 



124 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



be cured of his notions. Young William visited Paris, went into Italy, 

and through the gay capi- 
tals of Europe, and came 
back a polished, elegant 
gentleman, versed in the 
manners of courts, well-in- 
formed and well-bred, — 
but still a Quaker-. His 
father allowed him to live 
in his house, but refused to 
set eyes on him. Before he 
died, however, he was rec- 
onciled to him, and left him 
his fortune, which was very 
large. 

William Penn's wealth 
and position, and the 
friendship of the king for 
his father, jareserved him 
from severe persecution. 
Besides, the monarch was 
deeply in debt to Sir Will- 
iam, and when young Penn 
proposed to take a tract of land in America in payment for these 
debts and settle a colony of Quakers there, I fancy the king thought 
it a happy bargain. Charles II. and his brother James always liked 
William Penn, and he had large influence at court. • 

In 1682 Penn came to America with a party of Quakers. They 
entered the Delaware River and sailed up to the site of the city of 
Philadelphia. Before beginning this settlement Penn held a coun- 
cil with all the Indians who owned the land which the king had 
given him. The meeting was held under a spreading oak which 
has been famous ever since. There the English gentleman, in his 
drab long-skirted coat and broad hat, met the Indians in all their 
glory of feathers and war-paint, glittering strings of wampum, and 
drapery of furs. 

He paid the Indians fairly for their lands, and made with them a 
treaty of peace which was never broken. Like Roger Williams in 
Rhode Island, Penn was always loved and revered by the red man. 
The great oak-tree near Philadelphia, under which he made his 




/ 



GEORGIA SETTLED. 125 

treaty, flourished for many years, and now, on the spot where it 
grew, a monument is built. 

The name of Philadelphia means " city of brotherly love," and 
here Penn wished that those of his religion, and all other religions, 
should dwell together in peace. None of the early cities of America 
was so carefully laid out as this. 

The land of which he became owner Penn wished to call " Syl- 
vania," from a Latin word meaning " forest." But the secretary, in 
writing the deed, made the name Pennsylvania, or " Penn's forest." 
Penn objected to this, because he did not believe in " vain titles " 
as he called them ; but the king insisted that the name should stand 
in -honor of Penn's father, and so it stands to this day. 

Pennsylvania Quakers had learned a noble lesson from their per- 
secutions, — the lesson of tolerance. Their 
laws were the best and most generous of 
any colony. All men and women who be- 
lieved in the Heavenly Father could there 
worship Him in peace. 

For twenty-two years after Pennsylvania 

..-i 1 .1 T,j.i Oi. J. £ T\ 1 Penn's Assembly House. 

was settled, the little btate oi Delaware was 

a part of this large State. In 1703 those counties of Pennsylvania 
which make the State of Delaware, petitioned to be allowed to make 
a colony by themselves, and this was granted, and from that time 
Delaware paid allegiance only to the crown of England. 




CHAPTER XXH. 

GEORGIA SETTLED. 



Another Colony planned. — General Oglethorpe. — The Town of Savannah begun. — Ogle- 
thorpe's Treaty. — Speech of Indian War-chief. — March of Salzburgers. — Pro-slavery 
Agitators — John Wesley, the Great Methodist. — Georgia becomes a Royal Province. 

After the settlements in the Carolinas at Albemarle and Charles- 
ton, the settlers there had great trouble with Indians. They finally 
made a treaty in which they promised they would make no settle- 
ment west of the Savannah River. This promise was so well kept, 
that when Charleston had been built sixty or seventy years there 
was not an English town beyond the Savannah. 

In 1732, when the Carolina colonies were flourishing, and Massa- 



126 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

chusetts and Virginia were quite important provinces ; when Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston were populous cities, it 
was proposed in England to colonize this southern part of the prov- 
ince of South Carolina, west of the Savannah. The king now rul- 
ing England was George II., a man from a different family from 
the Charleses, of whom we have heard so often. This George II. 
gave the right to colonize to a company of men called " Trustees of 
the Colony of Georgia." They called it Gieorgia^ in honor of their 
king. The trustees were to hold these lands for twenty-one years, 
and do their best to make a successful colony. They selected one 

of their number, Gfeneral James 
Oglethorpe^ to go out with the col- 
ony and see that they had comforta- 
ble homes there. General Oglethorpe 
was a soldier, and a wise, generous 
gentleman. The trustees thought it 
wise to send a military man, because 
the Indians, who lived across the 
river, had always been considered 
dangerous, and the Spaniards in 
Florida were so near Georgia, it was 
General Oglethorpe. thought bcst to bc prepared to act on 

the defensive against them. 

Tlie trustees collected forty families for their colony. They were 
most of them poor people, who were glad to go where they could 
get lands and make towns of their own. A missionary society in 
London also raised money and sent it over to Germany, to help 
some poor Protestants called Salzhurgers, who had been dreadfully 
abused on account of their religion, to go to Oglethorpe's colony. 

General Oglethorpe sailed in November, 1732, and on January 20, 
1733, he reached Charleston, South Carolina. He had with him 
one hundred and fourteen persons. After the}^ had rested a little 
they went to the mouth of the Savannah, and Oglethorpe went up 
the river to pick out a place for a town. He chose a site, and they 
at once began to lay it out as compactly as they could, so that the 
people might be close together in case the Indians or Spaniards 
should attack them. This town they called Savannah. It is the 
oldest town in Georgia. 

Very soon General Oglethorpe sent for some of the Indian chiefs 
and held a parley with them. There came eleven chiefs, each with his 




GEORGIA SETTLED. 127 

attendants, and all behaved with great dignity. One of these chiefs 
made a speech, in which he said, that though " they were poor and 
ignorant, He who had given them breath, had given the English 
breath also. He who had made them both, had given most wisdom 
to the white man. They were all firmly persuaded that the Great 
Power which dwelt in heaven and all around, had sent the Eng- 
lish here to teach them, their wives, and children. Therefore they 
would freely give them all the land they did not use themselves." 

He made a very good speech, indeed, for an unlearned savage ; 
and two Englishmen, who had lived in America for several years, 
translated it for Oglethorpe. When he got through, the chiefs of 
eight tribes laid a bundle of deer-skins at General Oglethorpe's feet. 
Then the general gave them each a suit of clothes, with some 
coarser cloth for their attendants, and gave them fire-arms, tobacco- 
pipes, cloth, linen, and several other things to take away. The 
Indians always kept peace with Oglethorpe, and he always heard 
their complaints of any ill-treatment, on the part of his colonists, 
with justice and humanity. 

About a year after Oglethorpe had settled in Savannah, the first 
ship-load of the Salzburgers came. They were very good people, 
and were welcome to the colony. Before leaving Germany this 
little band of pilgrims, who had suffered as much for their religion 
as the Pilgrims in Plymouth, had walked in procession from the bor- 
ders of Austria to the sea-coast, in order to take ship and leave 
their native land, to find freedom in Georgia. 

The colony began with some of the wisest' laws passed by any 
of the colonies. First, they forbade the use of rum in the colony, 
and the sale of it to the Indians, because Oglethorpe declared that 
rum was the chief cause of the quarrels between the whites and 
Indians, from which the Indian wars arose. Instead of strong liq- 
uors like rum, he tried to introduce English ale or beer among 
the people. Next, he made a law which forbade any colonists to 
hold negro slaves. He wished to encourage white labor, because 
he did not believe in slavery, and thought it bad for the colony. 
Ever since the Dutch in 1620 had sold the first slaves in Virginia, 
slavery had been increasing there and in the Carolinas. So that 
Oglethorpe's attempt to keep it out of Georgia was not popular 
among his colonists. 

The colony had some trouble with the Spaniards in Flo-rida, and 
once Oglethorpe invaded Florida, and made an unsuccessful attack 



128 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

on St. Augustine. His great trouble, however, was on account of 
his two laws against rum and slavery. Some colonists were so 
indignant because they could not hold slaves, that they went to 
Charleston, and wrote bitter letters to England against Oglethorpe. 

Rev. John Wesley, who was the head and founder of the Metho- 
dist Church, — one of the best and sweetest of Christians, — was in 
Georgia when these pro-slavery colonists were stirring up sedition 
there. They abused him as being a " hypocrite and more than half 
Roman Catholic," and accused him of many bad deeds. After his 
return to England, John Wesley denounced slavery in America as 
'^ the sum of all villainies." I presume what he saw in the Carolinas 
helped him to this conclusion. 

But Oglethorpe found his colonial labor an ungrateful one. He 
was a noble gentleman, and deserves to be ranked beside John 
Smith, John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and William Penn. But 
he had so much trouble with the disaffected colonists in Georgia, 
that he said at last he was sick of the name of the colony and glad 
to return to England. 

After the twenty-one years had expired for which the trustees 
held their charter, it was given up to George II., and Georgia be- 
came a royal colony. They had negro slaves after that, and as 
much strong drink as they wanted. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

KING PHILIPS WAR. 



The Thirteen Colonies. — The Colonists' Fear of the Indians. — Philip, the Son of friendly Mas- 
sasoit. — John Sassamon tells Tales of Philip. — Blood shed by English and Indians. — Out- 
break of Indian War. — The Attack on Hadley.— "The Indians ! The Indians ! "— Appear- 
ance of the Strange Warrior. — The Regicides. — Death of King Philip. — End of the War. 

We have now heard all about the settlement of the thirteen col- 
onies which afterwards became the first States in this Union. These 
thirteen colonies were Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Geor- 
gia. Maine had also been settled, but it was a part of Massachu- 
setts until after the Union was formed. 

By recalling the dates, you will see that Virginia was settled in 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 129 

1607, and JVxassacliusetts thirteen years after, while Georgia, the hist 
colony, was begun in 1732, more than one hundred years later. I 
wish you would also recall the differences between the early settlers 
in these States, the Puritans in Massachusetts, the Cavaliers in Vir- 
ginia, the Dutch traders in New York, the Quakers in Pennsylva- 
nia, and the Catholics in Maryland, and you can see when all these 
different kinds of people, of diverse countries, and many religious 
beliefs, were blended together into one nation, they must have 
brought together a great many manners and customs, which united 
to form a broad, liberal country, where all nations on the earth could 
find a home. 

For a long time, partly because they were the oldest settlements, 
INIassachusetts and Virginia remained the principal colonies, and 
were the centre of the most important events. We will now return 
to the New England settlements, and see what they had been doing 
up to the time the last emigration came to Georgia. 

Massachusetts was still the leading colony there. Beside Mas- 
sachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony, she owned the province of 
Maine. Her two oldest settlements had towns up and down the 
sea-coast, and were rapidly spreading into the interior toward the 
Connecticut River. Rhode Island and Connecticut had also many 
growing towns, and the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire were 
the resort of fishermen and fur traders, and many ships came to their 
ports to take away fish and timber. 

The great cause of anxiety in Massachusetts, for the first century 
of its growth, was from war with Indians. Notwithstanding the 
efforts of good John Eliot to do good to the Indians, and make them 
Christians, the English, as a general thing, did not get on any bet- 
ter with the savages than the Spanish explorers did. With the ex- 
ception of Roger Williams, William Penn, and James Oglethorpe, 
the founders of the colonies do not seem to have taken the humane 
ground, that the Indians were human beings, and brothers in the 
great family of God. Eliot's labors had formed a community at 
Natick, who were civilized, and known .as "praying Indians." 
But the greater part of the Indians in New England looked with 
distrust on the pale-faces. 

I hope you have not forgotten Massasoit, the Indian chief who 
visited the Plymouth Colony and smoked the pipe of peace with 
Governor Carver. During his life, Massasoit kept faith with the 
white men, and once revealed to them the plot of another Indian 

9 




130 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

tribe which endangered their safety. After Massasoit died, his son 
Metacomet, -whom the white men called Philip, became chief of his 
tribe. King Philip seems to have been a brave 
warrior, and a man of superior mind. He was 
never quite contented with the rapid inroads 
which the English were making in the country 
which had once belonged entirely to the In- 
dians. I have no doubt he felt something as 
we should, if a company of men much wiser 
than we, and superior in all respects to our- 
selves, should come here to America, begin 
King Philip. building magnificent cities all over our coun- 

try, and keep crowding us farther and farther from the places we 
had called our own. It would be rather hard to bear, would it not ? 
The chief abode of Philip was at* Mount Hope, a hill near the 
town of Bristol, Rhode Island. Here around the camp-fire the 
rude monarch may have sat with his war-chiefs, mused over the 
past glories of his tribe, and thought of the time when Massasoit, 
his father, owned all the land which now was filled with the farms 
and villages of the strangers, till his heart grew heavy, and he 
vented his discontent in bitter words. Some such words of Philip 
were overheard by a " praying Indian " named John Sassamon, and 
he went at once and told the white people that Philip was plotting 
mischief against them. It is not known whether there really was 
any plot or only murmurings ' of discontent among the savages. 
When they heard, however, that Sassamon had told tales of them, 
they were very angry, and slew him as soon as they could lay hold 
of him. There had been some other acts of hostility before this, 
and growing ill-feeling on both sides. 

To revenge Sassamon's death the white men took three of 
Philip's men and hung them on the gallows. King Philip was wise 
enough to foresee that these things must end in misery to his own 
people, and when word Avas brought him that there had been blood 
shed on both sides, he is said to have wept tears of regret that 
war could not be prevented. 

Wlien the war began it was a terrible and bloody warfare. The 
first attack was made by Indians on a party peacefully coming 
home from church. The Indians rarely left any one alive, not even 
the baby at its mother's breast. Those they left alive they took 
away as prisoners, made them sutf er great hardships, and often put 




KING PHILIP'S WAR. 131 

them to death, with slow tortures, at some of their war-feasts or 
war-dances. 

King Phihp made a treaty with one of the neighboring tribes 
(the Narragansetts), and the two united 
made great havoc. Up and down the Con- 
necticut River valley, from the borders of 
Connecticut to what is now the State of 
Vermont, they roamed in large bands, car- 
rying horror wherever they went. They 

.,,-,, , , , , ,. Palisaded Buildings. 

attacked churches where the congregations 

were worshiping. Every church-goer said his prayer, " Forgive us 
our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us," with his 
musket close by his side. Everywhere was massacre and fighting. 
Sometimes a party of white men fell upon a party of Indians in 
their wigwams and slew them all, warriors and old men, and even 
the children. Sometimes they carried away the squaws and young 
ones, to be sold into slavery, which the Indians feared more than 
death. Often the white woman and her daughters spinning in her 
farm-house kitchen Avith the little children playing on the floor, 
would see an Indian tomahawk come flying through the air and 
cleave the baby's skull ; then the tall forms of Indians would 
darken the doorway, and they would rush in to murder the wife and 
daughters, and even tlie helpless old grandmother sitting by the 
fireside. At sunset, when the father and sons came home from the 
field where they had been at work, they would find only the smok- 
ing ruins of their homes, and dead bodies on their hearth-stone. 

The war began in the summer of 1675, and all through the sum- 
mer and winter it was kept up with great suffering on both sides. 
The towns of Brookfield and Deerfield were burnt. A terrible bat- 
tle was fought near Deerfield, which is called the " Battle of 
Bloody Brook." 

One quiet Sunday, nearly all the inhabitants of the little town of 
Hadley were gathered together in church. All the old men and 
young men, mothers with nursing babies in their arms, maidens 
and little children were in the house of worship. The minister 
was at prayer, and the whole congregation was as still as death. 
Suddenly arose the wild cry, " The Indians ! The Indians ! " 

Every man seized the gun which stood by him. The women 
huddled the children together, and stood close in 'the little log 
church, with faces pale as death. The men met the red foe bravely, 



132 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



but the surprise was so great, and the numbers so unequal, that 
the Indians were fast gaining an advantage. All at once, in the 
middle of the fight, appeared a man of towering height, with long 
streaming hair and beard, dressed in strange wild fashion. He 
came among the white men like a strong deliverer. Wherever he 
went the Indians fell before him. The courage of the English 
began to rise. They thought God had sent a warlike angel, or 
the spirit of some great Hebrew prophet whom they revered, to 
lead them out of this sore strait, and gathering all their strength 
they beat back the enemy. When the fight was over the stranger 
had disappeared as quickly as he had come. 

It was not until long after that it was discovered who this un- 




Cave of the Regicides. 

known helper was. Many believed to their dying day that he 
was not mortal man. But long after this story Avas told : When 
King Charles I. had his head cut o& in England, four-and-twenty 
Puritan judges signed the sentence of death. In the time of Crom- 
well, these judges were men of distinction in England, but as soon 
as Charles 11. came to be king, he offered a reward for the 
heads of the men who had condemned his father. Two of them, 
Edward Whalley and William GofEe, got away to America, and 
were concealed here, and secretly harbored by the Puritans. They 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 133 

were known as the " Regicides," which means " king-murderers." 
For years they were in many hiding-phices. They lived in woods 
and caves, sometimes daring to seek shelter in lonely farm-houses, 
where the people sympathized with them. There is to-day a place 
in the rocks near New Haven, Connecticut, called the " Regicides' 
cave," Avliere they were once hid. Finally, one of their friends, who 
lived in Hadley, had a part of his house cunningly divided off, and 
fitted up for them. And there they lived a long time, no one in 
the town being aware of their abode there. It was William Goffe, 
the younger of the two, who had thus aided the people of Hadley 
on the day of the battle. 

During the winter of 1675-76, Josiah Winslow, wlio was a 
son of one of the first governors of Massachusetts, with 1,000 men 
under his command, went to conquer these " bloody heathen," as 
they called the red men. It was desperate fighting on both sides. 
Neither showed any humanity. When the Indians took prisoners, 
they tortured them horribly till they died. Once when the white 
men had taken the body of an Indian woman, a princess of her 
tribe, who had tried hard to escape by swimming and was drowned, 
they were not content with getting her dead body, but cut off the 
head and paraded it round on a pole. Before the summer of 1676, 
the white men had conquered, and Philip, who had lost his men and 
lands, and had neither corn to eat nor powder for his musket, came 
wearily back to Mount Hope to die. There he found that his wife 
and little boy had been taken prisoners. 

" It is enough," said the poor chief, when he heard this. " Now 
my heart breaks." He made no effort to escape after this, and was 
shot by an Indian friendly to the whites. 

The Puritans debated what thgy should do with Philip's little son 
who was their prisoner. Some wanted to kill him outright, others 
wanted to sell him into slavery. This last counsel prevailed, and 
he was sold as a slave in the West India Islands. There the son of 
King Philip, the grandson of Massasoit, who for a life-time kept 
faith with the white men, ended his life in the worst kind of bond- 
age. 

After Philip's death peace was known once more. But Massachu- 
setts had suffered terribly. Connecticut had kept clear of the war, 
and Rhode Island had kept peace with the Indians, although part of 
that little State had been the battle-ground, and Providence and 
Warwick were partly burned. Massachusetts had lost one man out 



134 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

of every twenty, and one family out of each twenty had lost their 
homes. After the war, the Puritans reasoned that it had been a 
judgment of God sent upon them for their sins. One of the sins on 
which they urged this penalty was that they had not been severe 
enough on the Quakers. I think they had done a good deal more 
than any humane persons would like even to read about nowadays, 
but it seems that they fancied that God was not quite satisfied with 
them and would have liked a few more noses and ears cut off. 

As soon as the people in Massachusetts began to recover from the 
dreadful effect of the Indian massacres, they became engaged in a 
law-suit about the ownership of New Hampshire and Maine. You 
remember Maine had been granted to Fernando Gorges, and New 
Hampshire to John Mason. Both these men" were dead, but their 
heirs were living and claimed these countries. It was finally 
settled in this way : Massachusetts bought Maine in 1677 for six 
thousand dollars, and in 1080 New Hampshire came under the con- 
trol of the king, and was a royal colony. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. 

Governor William Berkeley. — " Thank God there are no Free Schools in Virginia! " — John 
Washington tights Maryland Indians. — Savages retaliate. — Nathaniel Bacon goes into 
the Field without a Commission. — He is declared Traitor. — Great Excitement in James- 
town. — Attack on the Town. — Bacon's Death. — Berkele}' hangs the Rebels. — The King 
calls him back to England. — What the King said of Berkeley. 

During the troubles in Massachusetts they were having trouble 
in Virginia also. Ever since Charles II. had been made king in 
1660, Sir William Berkeley had been governor there. He w^as a 
very strong royalist, a narrow-minded, tyrannical man. I am quite 
sure he was narrow-minded, because this is what he said in one of 
his reports to the English Council : " I thank God there are no 
free schools and printing, and I hope we shall not have them these 
hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience, heresy, and 
sects into this world, and printing has divulged them, and libels 
against the government. God keep us from both." 

You can imagine from that what sort of a man Berkeley was. 
A regular pig-headed old governor, I think. The colonies had 



AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. 135 

enjoyed large liberties in Cromwell's reign. The colonists had been 
allowed to vote, and had managed their own affairs with very little 
appeal to England. All this Berkeley changed. He took away 
their right to vote, and made himself very powerful, so that he was 
almost a king in tlie colony. He made tax-laws without consulting 
the planters, and there was a great deal of discontent felt about it. 
The planters who were scattered about at a distance from James- 
town, which was the capital of the colony, many of them scolded 
about Berkeley, but they could not do anything against his tyranny 
without risking their lives and their farms, and men will generally 
bear a great deal before they will risk either. 

One of the members of the governor's council, which held its 
meetings at Jamestown, was Nathaniel Bacon, a man about thirty 
years of age, who had a plantation in Stafford County on the Poto- 
mac. He did not like Berkeley's conduct, and said many sharp 
things about it. And as he was a ready speaker, brave, daring, and 
popular among the colonists, Berkeley was not favorably inclined 
toward him. 

Early in 1675, the year of Philip's war in Massachusetts, the 
Indians began to trouble the Virginians. The troubles began in 
Maryland, and the Marylanders, being weak, sent to ask help of 
Virginia. Colonel John Washington went out to help them with a 
small company. This Colonel Washington was the ancestor of 
General George Washington, whom I shall tell you much about 
hereafter. The Virginians foolishly killed six Indian chiefs, who 
were sent to treat for peace by the Indian tribes, and that made 
matters worse. The Indians at once killed sixty white men, saying 
it took ten common English soldiers to pay for one chief. After 
that they crossed into Virginia, killing the settlers, and laying 
waste their farms. Each day there were fresh accounts of some 
horrible proceeding, and the planters complained that Governor 
Berkeley took no measures to protect them. Nathaniel Bacon sev- 
eral times asked permission of the governor to go and put down 
the Indian warfare, but was peremptorily refused. At this Bacon 
grew hotly indignant, and swore " commission or no commission, the 
next man I hear of that is killed by Indians, I will go out against 
the savages if I can get twenty men to follow me." 

Now it happened the next man killed was the overseer on 
Bacon's plantation, to whom he was very much attached. This 
made him furious, and he at once gathered all the fighting men in 



136 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the country who would join him, and went out against the Indians. 
They killed one hundred and fifty, with a loss of three of their own 
men, and then Bacon returned home to find that he had again been 
elected one of the assembly to meet in Jamestown. 

Before he arrived in Jamestown, he learned that Berkeley had 
sent an armed boat to take him j^i'isoner, and that he was declared 
a rebel all over the town. He was seized, carried before the gov- 
ernor, and made to give his word of honor that he would not do so 
again. He gave his word, and the next day he came before the as- 
sembly, and asked pardon of the governor for what he had done. 
He had a rich uncle in the colony, whose heir expectant and name- 
sake he was, and it was said that he had urged him so strongly to 
make peace with Berkeley, and make this confession, that the young 
man had unwillingly given in. 

Berkeley now made all sorts of fair promises, and said he would 
give Bacon a proper commission to fight the Indians. But Bacon 
was warned that the governor meant to play false with him, and 
went up the James River, away from the town. 

The governor then summoned the men of the country to arm, 
and defend Jamestown, which he feared Bacon was going to attack. 
In three or four days Bacon appeared with about five hundred men, 
marching into Jamestown, threatening the governor (who he said 
had always deceived him), and demanding his commission to fight 
the Indians. 

There was a terrible hubbub in the town. Bacon's troops shouted, 
the governor's friends were frightened, and the governor appeared 
at a window, and tearing open his breast in high Roman fashion, 
cried, " Shoot me ! here, shoot ! here is a fair mark ! " 

At length the governor again agreed that Bacon should have the 
commission, and he went off with it in triumph. No sooner was 
his back turned, than Berkeley again proclaimed him a rebel and 
began to raise troops to follow and suppress him. 

This again fired Bacon's anger. He came back with his men as 
fast as he could gallop, and attacked Jamestown in good earnest. 
He had two influential friends in town, Mr. Lawrence and Mr. 
Drummond, who helped him all they could. After a short fight he 
took the town, and burned it, houses, churches, and all. Mr. Law- 
rence and Mr. Drummond owned the two best houses in town, ex- 
cept the governor's, and each applied the flames to his own house. 
Most of the town was thus laid in ashes. 



AFFAIRS IN NEW YORK AND MASSACHUSETTS. 137 

Then Bacon called a convention and an assembly of his own, and 
as he was popular with a large number of the people, perhaps might 
have made himself governor, if he had not been taken ill, from ex- 
posure in the marsh around Jamestown, and died suddenly. After 
this Berkeley published a proclamation, pardoning all who would 
come back and submit to his authority, except a few of the most 
noted rebels. As they had now no leader, and no plan of resist- 
ance, the insurgents laid down their arms, and went home. When 
quiet was restored, Berkeley began to hang all those whom he had 
exempted from pardon. He put several of the assembly to death, 
and many honest persons who had really meant and done no harm, 
till the colonists petitioned him to hang no more. How long he 
would have continued this wholesale hanging, if Charles H. had 
not called him back to England, I do not know. When the king- 
heard of the affair he said, " That old fool has hanged more men 
in that naked country, than I have for the murder of my father." 

Berkeley died soon after in England, and Virginia had a new 
governor named Jeffreys. The Indians do not seem to have troub- 
led them any more at this time, and thus ended the most notable 
disturbance which ever took place in the Virginia colony, which is 
known in history as Bacon's rebellion. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

AFFAIRS IN NEW YORK AND MASSACHUSETTS. 

England and Holland at War. — The Dutch take New York City again. — Edmund Andros in 
Boston. — His Tyrannies there. — His Journey to Connecticut. — Disappearance of the 
Charter. — The New English King. — Uprising in New York. — Leisler executed. — Char- 
ter Oak. 

After Bacon's rebellion, Virginia remained quiet and prosper- 
ous for many years. While we leave her to raise tobacco, and cul- 
tivate her plantations by the help of her increasing negro slaves, 
we must look at New York, and see how she is prospering. You 
remember, the last account we had of this colony, Charles II. had 
given her to his younger brother, the Duke of York, from whom the 
State took its present name. This Duke of York, whose name was 
James Stuart, had made Richard Nichols governor, after the colony 
was conquered by the English and surrendered by sturdy Peter 



138 STORY OF OUR COUlS'TRY. 

Stuyvesant, the last Dutch ruler. After Nichols had remained in 
office three or four years, he went to England, leaving the colony 
prosperous, and the duke sent a gentleman bearing the romantic 
name of Francis Lovelace, as his representative in New York. 

About this time war broke out betAveen England and Holland. 
While Charles II. was wasting the money of his poor people, and 
behaving like an idle vagabond who has no object in life but his 
own amusement, the plucky little state of Holland came near con- 
quering England. One of the Dutch admirals sailed up the River 
Thames, frightening the London people nearly out of their wits, and 
almost succeeding in making Charles serious for a few days. Hol- 
land gave instructions to one portion of her fleet to go over to 
America and recover her lost possessions there. Early in 1673 
they came over, and after very little trouble took New York into 
their own hands, and renamed it New Amsterdam. They did not 
keep it long, however. In sixteen months the countries across the 
ocean made peace with each othei', and Holland gave New York 
back to its duke. From that time it remained a colony of England. 

When Charles II. died, his brother James became king. Of all 
the Stuarts, he seems the weakest and most unfit to be king. He 
had sent during his dukeship a very tyrannical governor to New 
York, Sir Edmund Andros, and after his accession to the throne, 
he transferred him to ISIassachusetts. 

Never was a man more heartily hated than Sir Edmund Andros 
by the people of Massachusetts. He brought over in his train to 
Boston some companies of British soldiers. These were the first 
English soldiers in the colony, and were looked on with great dis- 
favor by the people, who had got so accustomed to taking care of 
themselves, that they were very much afraid of any military inter- 
ference. 

But what most outraged the Puritans of Boston, was the fact that 
Andros put an English clergyman in their " South Meeting-house," 
and bade him read there the service of the Church of England. 
The Puritans hated surpliced priests, and litanies, and all ceremonial 
worships as much as ever. They would not even have a cross on 
their meeting-houses, because it reminded them of the Church of 
Rome. And now, to have a clergyman in long robes reading a 
litany out of book in their own pulpit, was too much to be borne. 
The sexton refused to ring the church bell to call the worshipers 
together, and all the owners of the meeting-house were in great in- 
dignation. 



AFFAIRS IN NEW YORK AND MASSACHUSETTS. 139 

But Andros did something worse tlian appropriating their church- 
building to his own uses. He made an attack on the hberties of 
the people, and sought to take away the charters, which the people 
guarded as the very ark and covenant of their freedom. 

The charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island 
were all very liberal, and gave the people large powers. They had 
been given by King Charles at a time when he probably regarded 
the colonies as not of much consequence, and a little freedom more 
or less as a thing not material to English rule in America. These 
charters Andros pronounced void ; the people were forbidden to as- 
semble in town meeting to elect their officers as they had been wont 
to do ; they were heavily and unjustly taxed ; their citizens were 
arrested for acts which their charter pronounced legal ; in short, all 
the indignities that a narrow tyrant could heap upon a people, Sir 
Edmund Andros heaped upon the colony he was sent to govern. 

After establishing as firmly as he might his system of tyranny in 
Massachusetts, he made a visit to Connecticut, designing to take 
away her charter and repeal all the laws which gave freedom of 
action to the people. Arriving in Hartford, where that sacred 
document of the liberties of the colony was carefully guarded, he 
called a meeting in the court-house. The strong box containing 
the charter was placed upon the table in the midst of the assembly. 
Then the officers of the colony began a long argument with Sir 
Edmund Andros and his party, until it grew so dark that candles 
were lighted in the apartment. Suddenly all the candles were put 
out. It was pitchy dark for a few minutes, and when the con- 
f usipn was over and lights were brought in, the box with the char- 
ter had disappeared, nobody knew where. Sir Edmund Andros 
had to go back without it and to content himself with telling the 
people that the rights it gave them were good for nothing, and 
they had no rights at all except the very few he and King James 
chose to grant them. 

By this time the people of England were getting as tired of 
James II. as the Massachusetts people were of Andros. For one 
thing he was a bigoted Romanist, and all the English people now 
were firmly Protestant. They resolved to dethrone James, and sent 
to William of Orange, who had married the Princess Mary, eldest 
daughter of James, to come and be their ruler. It was agreed that 
this husband and wife should govern England as joint sovereigns, 
and their reign is called " the reign of William and Mary." 



140 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

As soon as the Massachusetts people heard of James's removal 
from the throne, they resolved they would not endure Andros any 
longer. One morning in April the Boston people rose as one man, 
beat their drums, and set up a flag on Beacon Hill. Then they took 
the governor and his men prisoners. Andros tried to escape by 
dressing up in woman's clothes, and had got past two of his guards, 
when the next one caught sight of his shoes, saw that they, were not 
a lady's shoes, and so stopped his escape. 

He was sent back to England, and although nothing was done to 
punish the colonies for his arrest, no steps were taken against him. 
Indeed, he was afterwards made governor of Virginia, but behaved 
better there, and gave the colonists no great alarm by his onslauglits 
on their liberties. 

Governor Dongan of New York (one of King James's governors) 
was a mild ruler and not unjust to the people. But the Protestants 
there did not like him because he was a Catholic. When the news 
reached New York that William of Orange was king, there was an 
insurrection of the New York people, headed by Jacob Leisler. He 
took possession of the fort, and then sent word to England that he 
was holding the government against the Catholics for William and 
Mary. In the mean time, the king had sent Colonel Henry 
Sloughter to govern New York. When he arrived he arrested Leis- 
ler for treason. 

Leisler had many enemies, and they put the worst color upon his 
acts, so that after a trial, he with his son in-law, Jacob ]\Iilbourne, 
were sentenced to die. They met death bravely, saying they had 
meant no treason, but had simpl}^ defended the rights of Protest^ant- 
ism and the new king and queen. This was the only blood shed in 
the colonies on the new change of government, and was the only 
cloud on the bright prospects of the new reign. 

Are you wondering meanwhile what became of the Connecticut 
charter, which disappeared so suddenly from under the nose of Sir 
Edmund Andros ? A certain Captain Wadsworth had seized it in 
the dark, and hidden it in a hollow place in an oak-tree just outside 
the court-house. There it stayed till William and Mary Avere pro- 
claimed sovereigns of England, when it was taken out with great 
rejoicing. The old oak was always called the " Charter Oak " and 
remained green till 1856, when a storm blew it down. 

And amid great rejoicing all over New England at the recovery 
of their liberties and the restoration of a Protestant monarch to the 
throne of England, the reign of William and Mary began. 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 141 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 

Biilief in Witches. — Causes for this Belief. — The Idea of the Devil. — Study of Necro- 
mancy. — Two Children " bewitched." — Arrest of Friendless Old Women. — Babies chained 
and thrown into Prison as Witches. — Torture of Witches. — Confessions. — Hanging of 
Women. — Witches' Hill. — End of the Witchcraft Madness. 

Shortly after Sir Edmund Andros was deposed, and while the 
colony was under little or no government but that of the local au- 
thorities of Massachusetts, one of the worst events took place ever 
recorded in the annals of the American colonies. It is known as 
the Salem Witchcraft. 

Of course you understand that there are no such things as 
witches ; that there never have been and never can be. But in the 
days of which I write, a large number of people, whom we should 
think ought to have known better, believed in witchcraft. They 
believed that witches were a class of persons who had made a league 
with the devil to be his servants and children, and in return got 
power from him to do evil deeds and torment innocent people. In 
Europe, this belief was almost universal, and men and women had 
been not unfrequently burned, hanged, and tortured for witchcraft. 
King James I. of England, a stupid, narrow-minded old bigot, had 
believed in witches, and caused some to be hung in his day. Sev- 
eral times in the colonies there had been a brief excitement of this 
kind, and in many places some poor withered old woman, who lived 
by herself, was looked on with suspicion as a witch. But nothing 
in this country, and few things abi'oad, equaled the madness on the 
subject that prevailed in Salem in the year 1692. 

We must take into consideration the fact that Salem was a pecul- 
iar colony. Its chief and founder Avas John Endicott, who was a 
stern, gloomy, fanatical man ; naturally the colony fostered by him 
had something of his spirit impressed upon it, — the spirit that had 
driven the good Roger Williams out into the wilderness. Salem, 
like most of the New England towns, was stanch in the idea that 
amusement or recreation must form a very small part in life. Re- 
ligion — a hard, sombre kind of religion we should think it to-day — 
was the first thing in life ; and tvork was the next thing. To dance, 
or play games, laugh gayly, sing much except psalm tunes in minor 
keys, were to them " ungodly customs." The severe colonists of 



142 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Massachusetts had once gone miles out of their way to cut down a 
May-pole wreathed with flowers, which, according to the custom in 
" Merry Old England," some people had erected to dance around 
on the first day of May. To them such practices were " profane, 
and unbefitting. God's people." All the light and color and bright- 
ness with which God has adorned the earth did not appeal to those 
hard Puritans. In short, these people were just, sternly honest, 
conscientious, ready to die for the sake of duty, but they completely 
turned their backs on one side of life. They did not recognize the 
fact that all work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, but 
that in the end it makes him worse than dull, it often makes him 
mad, and drives him even into terrible and unexpected crimes. 
Such a social system as theirs was sure to have some such an out- 
break as it did in the serious town of Salem, and it was very well, 
to my thinking that it was not even worse and more wide-spread 
than it proved. 

In the minds of these people the devil was a very important per- 
sonage who had great powers and was very real. In their imagina- 
tions he had a long tail, a pair of horns, and hoofs like an animal. 
He could take all sorts of shapes, the most usual being that of a 
black man, or a black cat. Sometimes, however, he might be a pig, 
or even a spider, or flea. You have perhaps read similar stories of 
transformation in the " Arabian Nights." The queerest part of it 
was that learned men, not only in America but all over Europe, be- 
lieved these old nurse's tales. 

In such a state of belief as this a company of young girls, who 
had no wholesome girlish amusements to fill up their evenings, 
met together at the house of the village minister to study what was 
called " necromancy, or the black art of magic." The oldest of these 
was not more than twenty years, the youngest only nine. Two or 
three young married women afterwards became interested in their 
proceedings, and two slaves from the West Indies, who were Indians 
with a mixture of African blood in their savage veins, met also with 
them. No doubt these ignorant slaves, full of the wild superstitions 
of their savage estate, put many ideas in these children's heads. 
They had also a few old books on " magic " or the " black art " 
over which they pored in their secret conclaves. What they did 
at their meetings is not known. It is not impossible that they 
may have had exhibitions of some phenomena not unlike " modern 
spiritualism." But whatever they did, the worst sort of excitement 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 143 

arose from it. All at once these girls began to have strange fits, to 
utter loud outcries, and be twisted in wonderful contortions, declar- 
ing that they were bewitched. 

If they had been left unnoticed, or their meetings broken up, and 
they had been sharply reasoned with about their absurd conduct, it 
would probably have stopped at once. But the minister's daughter 
and niece, two girls eleven and nine years old, were among the 
number, and their conduct attracted his notice. Of course he be- 
lieved in witchcraft, and was at once on the alert to hunt out 
witches. The girls accused a poor, feeble woman, with no worse 
crime than that of old age, as the cause of their convulsions, and she 
was at once taken up and thrown into prison. From that time the 
madness steadily increased till it reached its height. Soon another 
old woman, then another, was arrested. The victims were brought 
before their accusers, who straightway went into terrible convulsions 
at the first look of the witch's eyes, from which they were only re- 
covered when the poor trembling old creature was loaded with 
chains and thrown into prison. t 

At first only old women, poor and friendless, were accused, but 
by and by young women, men, mothers with children, even little 
children of tender years, fell victims. At one time a woman and 
hex jive-year-old child both lay chained in Salem jail, awaiting trial 
for witchcraft. A little girl of eight was examined by a council of 
reverend men and frightened into saying that she was a witch, " her 
mother had tauoht her to be one." A widow with four children, 
the youngest an infant, was torn from her family, dragged from her 
house, her babies following and crying piteously for their mother. 
If the neighbors had not been tender-hearted enough to succor 
these children they might have starved, and it required some cour- 
age to succor the children of those accused of witchcraft. 

When the " witches " were brought to trial, they were urged to 
confess their wicked practices. If they denied all guilt, they were 
confronted with their accusers, who were seis;ed with convulsions 
at the sight of them, and who cried out upon them as having on 
such a night come to them to persuade them .also to become fol-i 
lowers of Satan. The prisoners were baited with questions, urged 
to confess, and sometimes in case of refusal were put to torture. 
Some were tied by the neck and heels, and hung up till the blood 
gushed from their nostrils ; they were probed with pins, till a cal- 
lous place insensible to pin-prick was found on them, when it was 



144 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

said, " this was the devil's mark which he had set on his chil- 
dren;" They did all sorts of cruel things that the inhumanity of 
the time could devise, till one old man, who had probably heard of 
the persecutions of Bloody Mary's time, said simply, " It seemeth 
me these are very like Popish cruelties;" and another colonist, 
speaking of the examinations of the witches, said, " They had trials 
of cruel raockings, which is the more strange, considering what a 
people for religion (I mean for profession of it) we have been." 

Sometimes the accused people, amazed at what they saw, badgered 
and baited by unfeeling judges, began to think the}^ must be witches 
without knowing it. Their accusers urged them to confess that on 
such a night they had appeared in the shape of cats, or other ani- 
mals, or in their own human form, and tempted such a girl or 
woman to sign her name in a red book, " the devil's book." Hear- 
ing such strange accusations, urged with minute descriptions of 
their words and actions, while engaged in their unlawful practices, 
is it any wonder the victims almost lost reason, and sometimes con- 
fessed to crimes of which they had never dreamed ? Of these, most 
took back their confession^ saying they had made them through 
fear, or from hope of mercy. But to their honor, be it said, most of 
the accused stood firm, and denied all these charges laid to them. 
They were largely intelligent and pious people, many of them dis- 
believing witchcraft altogether, and they showed a courage and 
steadfast heroism that would grace the annals of Christian martyr- 
dom. One woman over eighty, hanged in Salem for witchcraft, 
died such a sublime death, so patient and heroic, praying tenderly 
for her misguided persecutors, that her story thrills the blood of 
him who reads it even to this day. 

Day after day these girls grew bolder in their wicked madness, 
and Christian ministers who aided on the frenzy by their exciting 
sermons, preached more ardently that the town must be cleared of 
all witches. A saintly clergyman, named George Burroughs, once 
settled in Salem, waa accused of witchcraft and murder. The ghosts 
of his victims appeared to one of these "possessed" children, and 
revealed that he had murdered his two wives and many other per- 
sons. On which the minister was sentenced to be hanged, which sen- 
tence was presently carried out. He died a holy death, with the 
Lord's Prayer on his lips. His body was taken down, disgracefully 
handled, and thrust half buried into the ground. 

And now accusations of murder were made by wholesale. Ghosts 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT. 145 

appeared by night and day, who had been sleeping quietly for 
twenty years. If you could believe these crazy girls of Salem, half 
the population of the town were murderers, and most of the dead 
for twenty years were put out of life by violent means. 

The hanging of the witches began vigorously. One morning in 
September, eight bodies hung dangling from one broad gallows on 
"• Witches' Hill,"' and Mr. Noyes, a preacher of Christ's gospel, who 
was foremost in their persecution, said, as he looked on approvingly, 
" See those eight fire-brands of hell hanging there." 

But this could not go on forever. The crazy zeal of those wbo 
began the excitement went too far. They fell into the habit of 
accusing all who denied the belief in witches, or showed sympathy 
for the prisoners. Their frenzy struck too high. In their wild 
ravings they accimed Mrs. Phips (Avife of Sir William Phips, the 
governor), who had entreated mercy for some of the accused ; they 
cried out upon the wife of one of the magistrates who had been luke- 
warm in convicting witches ; they uttered the name of Mrs. Hale, 
wife of an eminent divine in Beverly, who was known to have 
given aid to accused persons. These were names too high for evil 
repute, and the men who were calling for the blood of tlie witches, 
began to look about, and ask where this would stop. In this pause, 
better judgment came in ; reason returned to her throne; the com- 
mon sense of these usually clear-headed Puritans asserted itself, and 
the tide of madness turned back. But not till twelve good, inno- 
cent people had suffered a vile and horrible death ; not till an old 
man, over eighty, had been slowly pressed to death by heavy stones 
placed on his chest ; not until hundreds had been torn from homes 
and families, and suffered from chains and imprisonment for months. 
In prison, many had died ; some lived with shattered reason ; the 
homes of some were broken up ; their goods sold ; and even after 
they were pronounced innocent, some were kept months in prison 
for want of money to pay their board while in jail, and when liber- 
ated were set adrift homeless and penniless. In the history of the 
century, I know of no fouler blot on civilization than this of Salem 
Witchcraft. 

As out of all evil may come some good, this had its good results. 
It was the last of witchcraft in the countr3\ A faint attempt at 
such an excitement in IS[ew Hampshire, a few years later, was 
promptly checked. It set the people to thinking, and made them 
skeptical about such monstrous beliefs. It started a healthy reaction- 
10 



146 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

on that very spot. And to-day Salem, Massachusetts, stands a 
centre of science and intelligence, hardly second to any in America, 
a school of all the liberal and broad humanities which will tolerate 
no such cruel madness as this of which we have just read. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



INTER-COLONIAL WARS. 



War between Frencli and Englisli Colonies. — The French League with Indians. — Horrors of 
Indian Warfare. — Story of Hannah Dustin. — Bravery of the Women. — Towns destroj-ed. 
— Peace declared. — Another War. — Peace of Utrecht. — George's War. — Peace of Aix- 
la-Chapelle. 

♦ 

The most unfortunate affair that resulted from the accession of 
William and Mary Avas a war with France. On being driven from 
the throne by his people, James II. fled to France, and enlisted the 
interest of the French king to such a degree that he went to war 
with England for the purpose of restoring James to his kingdom. 
After France declared war upon England, the French colonies here 
went to war with the English colonies. Of course if the " mother 
countries " over the water were fighting, their children must fight 
also. 

The French got the Indian tribes in Eastern Canada, and in 
Maine and New Hampshire, to help them. This gave them a great 
advantage. The French leaders were skillful warriors, but did not 
know the country as well as the savages did ; their Indian allies 
knew the safest paths through the forest, the best way to fall upon 
and attack an unsuspecting village, and all the modes of warfare 
best adapted to a wild country. The principal French leader in 
this war was Count Frontenac, who was sent across the water to 
command the Frencli army. This war between the colonies lasted 
about eight years, till 1697, when peace was declared between 
France and England. 

You have heard something of the barbarities of Indian warfare. 
In this war they were revived in more than their usual horror. 
Whole towns were ravaged, farm-house after farm-house entered, 
the inmates slain or taken prisoners, and then the fire-brand applied. 
The war raged principally on the northern boundary of the English 
colonies ; and in New York and New England particularly, the peo- 



INTER-COLONIAL WARS. 



147 



pie lived in constant dread of their terril^le foes. Even the women 
learned to handle a musket, and defend homes and children. The 
suffering endured by the women captured by the savages is one of 
the notable features of this war. 

Just before the end of the war a band of Indians attacked the 
town of Haverhill, INlassachusetts, and made terrible havoc there. 
On leaving, they took Mrs. Hannah Dustin prisoner, with her nurse 
and her little babe only one week old. The baby cried as they 




Indian Attack. 



were marching out of town, and one of the Indians took it from the 
mother and killed it before her eyes. Then they marched through 
the woods for days and days, until they came to an island in the 
Merrimac River, near Concord, New Hampshire. Here Mrs. Dustin 
was placed in a wigwam with two Indian men, three squaws, and 
seven children. The Indians had a white boy in their service who 
had been taken prisoner in Massachusetts the year before. This 
boy had learned to talk with the Indians, and Mrs. Dustin formed 



148 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

a plan of escape in which she was aided by his knowledge of their 
tongue. She secretly instructed the boy to ask his savage master 
how to strike a blow which would kill instantly. The Indian unsus- 
pectingly showed the boy how to deal a fatal blow. One night 
when all the savages were asleep Mrs. Dustin aroused her two white 
companions, and one after the other they killed ten of their captors. 
A baby and one of the women she left unharmed. Then following 
the course of the Merrimac River, on which her home was situated, 
she reached the town of Haverhill safely, and was welcomed with 
» great joy by her husband and seven children who supposed her dead 
or sold into slavery. 

The deeds of bi-ave women, who rivaled the men in endurance 
and courage, would fill a volume. One heroic woman took charge 
of a fort and defended it successfully against the enemy, although it 
was on the frontier and subject to many attacks. They knew if 
they were taken what a terrible fate would lie theirs. If the Indians 
did not kill them, they drove them by long, hard marches through 
the wilderness till they reached some French settlement in Canada, 
and there sold these free-born English men, women, and children, 
as slaves to the French colonists. 

During " King William's War, as this long conflict was called, 
many towns were destroyed. Schenectady in New York, Salmon 
Falls in New Hampshire, Haverhill in Massachnsetts, were all rav- 
aged and burned. Sir William Phips, a native of New England, 
led the English troops to Port Royal and was successful in taking it. 
Colonel Church, who had been in King Philip's AVar, also did good 
service at this time. When at length the English and French made 
peace, great harm had lieen done on both sides. Indeed, war very 
rarely does any good. You will see that more and more as you read 
history, and it is to be hoped as the world grows more civilized 
we shall get rid of it altogether. 

Peace lasted about five years, and then England and France went 
to fighting again. WiUiam and Mary were both dead, and Anne, 
Mary's youngest sister, was queen. " Queen Anne's War was very 
; much such a war as the preceding. The Indians were again en- 
hsted on the French side, and the same horrible scenes were re-en- 
■ acted. The English also endeavored to join the Indians with them, 
and in some cases enlisted the tribes in New Y^ork, but they were 
much more inclined to be the allies of the French. The French 
missionaries had been working many years to convert the savages, 



INTER-COLONIAL WARS. 149 

with much better success than had been gained by the Enghsh Puri- 
tans. A great many Indians had joined the Roman Cathohc Church 
and attached themselves to the rehgion of their French teachers. 
The English asserted that the French leaders made use of their re- 
ligious feeling, and told them that they were fighting for God when 
they were killing the English. I do not know if this were true, but 
the English colonists believed it, and all through New England they 
-ri--.. passed more severe laws ngainst Roman Catholics than they had. 
~ done before, and hatred of the ' Jesuits,' as they called all priests of 
-that religion, was more intense than ever. King William's War 
had been felt very little by any of the colonies, except New York 
^ and New England, but in this war of Queen Anne's reign, they got 
^ involved with Spain also, and so the Carolinas had their share of 

fighting with the Spanish colonies in Florida. 
— ^ At length, in 1713, a new peace was made between France and 
England at the town of Utrecht, which was called the lieace of 
^ Utrecht. In this peace France gave England the domain which 
""^ they called "■ Acadie,''' and we call "'• Nova Scotia." The}^ also gave 
^ up the fur trade of Hudson Bay, and the whole of the island of 
*-- Newfoundland. 

One of the effects of these wars was that the colonies got in debt, 
"NT; and could not get gold and silver to pay what they owed, so they 
(A were obliged to issue notes. This was the first paper money ever 
used in the colonies. 

The Indians still troubled the colonies more or less, especially in 
South Carolina. Indeed the history of all settlements in the country 
is the history of Indian troubles, and there is little hope of being en- 
tirely free from them as long as the white man and the red man live 
on the same continent. 

I am sorry to be obliged to tell you so much about war. It is 
not a very pleasant subject to read about. But I must make a brief 
mention of one more war between France and England in which 
they again involved their colonies, and then for a chapter or two we 
can pass to more interesting subjects. 

This third war was called King George's War because it happened 
in the time of George II. You must understand that Queen Anne 
had died and been succeeded by a distant relative of hers from 
Hanover in Germany, who reigned under the title of George I. 
This king in turn had been followed by his son George II., in whose 
reign the new war was begun. We shall hear a good deal about 



150 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the Georges of England for a long time to come in our history, and 
I want you to keep their names in remembrance. 

"•King George's War" began in 1744 and lasted four years. 
Then a famous peace was made between France and England called 
the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The treaty took its name from the 
place in Germany where it was signed by all the European nations 
who had been fighting together. In this country the fighting had 
been going on as briskly as in Europe. It seems incredible that 
Christian nations should have offered rewards for the scalps of their 
enemies, and yet it was done during these Avars. When peace was 
declared, the governor of the French colonies ordered their Indian 
allies to be notified "• that they were not to go to New England on 
any more war parties, as they will not be paid in future for pruon- 
ers or scalps.^' 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

FRENCH DISCOVERERS AND JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 

Colony of Jacques Cartier. — French Fishermen. — Samuel Champlain the Father of New 
France. — Jesuits on the Mississippi. — Story of Isaac Jogues. — Indians worshiping with 
Roman Catholics. 

Since I told you of the attempts of the brave sailor of St. Malo, 
Jacques Cartier, to found a city at Montreal, and the failure of 
Coligny to plant colonies in the Carolinas, I have not told you 
much about the progress of French colonies in America. I am now 
going back to take up the thread of ray story where it left the 
French explorers and colonists, and tell you what they had done 
since the times of Cartier and Ribault. It is a long and interesting 
story, full of many strange and moving adventures, both by water 
and land. 

Almost from the time that their ships first came over to America, 
the P'rench merchants and sailors were interested in the fishing 
business which was so flourishing off the banks of Newfoundland. 
When Sir Humphrey Gilbert came over here in 1585, he found 
French ships fishing away on the banks. The discoveries of Ver- 
razano and Cartier gave the French their claim to the northern part 
of America, which they called Netv France. In 1603 the king of 
France gave one of his noblemen all that part of America between 



FRENCH DISCOVERERS AND JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 151 

the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude. Look on 
the map, and you will see just where this tract lies. At this very 
time, or shortly after. King James I. gave away some of this very 
land to companies of his subjects. Very little was known about 
boundary lands in North America in those days. 

For many years before the time of James I., French merchants 
liad been sending ships over here for fm'S^ of which they brought 
home large quantities of very fine ones. It was so profitable that 
even the nobles of France did not disdain to be interested in the fur 
trade. After this tract of land was given away by the king of 
France, it was named Accidie, and for a long time the part of 
North America now called Nova Scotia bore that name. About the 
year 1603 Samuel Champlain sailed to explore America. He went 
to Maine and put a colony on its shores, but they suffered so from 
cold and want of provisions, that this site was given up. In 1608 
he tried a colony in Quebec, Canada, with better success. The first 
winter was a hard struggle, almost as severe as the winter in Maine, 
but they were not discouraged, and in the spring Champlain set out 
to explore the country. He had with him a party of Indians who 
were at war with the tribes of northern New York. Champlain 
had made a treaty with them, to take their part against their ene- 
mies, if they would keep peace with him. They went in boats past 
the rapids of the St. Lawrence River, and finally reached the shores 
of a beautiful inland lake. Here they met a party of the hostile 
Indians, who prepared to attack them. But when Champlain 
turned upon them with his glittering muskets, and fired into their 
ranks ; when they saw the " thunder and lightning," as they called 
it, of the guns, they were filled with terror and fled, leaving a few 
dead and wounded behind them. The lake, on whose borders this 
fight took place, was Lake Champlain, and still bears the name of 
the man who discovered it. For many years Champlain remained 
in Canada, where he was called the " Father of New France." 
You have heard of the " Canadian boat-song," which is sung by the 
boatmen of the St. Lawrence. It is said that the first boat-song 
which ever woke the wild echoes of Canada, was sung by Cham- 
plain's sailors as they rowed up the river from their rude settlement 
at Quebec, to explore the unknown western wilderness. 

After Champlain had been a few years in America, he sent over 
to France for some missionaries, to be employed in converting the 
Indians to the Christian religion. Nearly all the early explorers of 



152 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

France and Spain were devout Roman Catholics, and were anxious 
to convert the savages to their religion. No doubt Champlain was 
a sincere and good man, and desirous to save these heathen souls. 

The sending for these missionaries, was a very important fact 
in the history of America. From that time forward they came in 
scores, all intent upon penetrating deeper and deeper into the wilder- 
ness, and setting up the cross, the emblem of their religion, where 
the Indians could bow before it. These Catholic priests, most of 
them, were " Jesuits," or " members of the Order of Jesus." They 
were nearly all excellent, self-denying men, who bore suffering, 
great perils, and cruel death, wntli meekness and heroism, in the 
service of their religion. While good John Eliot was at work 
teaching the Bible to the " bloody heathen " of New England, these 
priests had penetrated to the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Su- 
perior, and planted the cross in northern iMichigan. While the 
English colonists had only learned the geography of the sea-coast 
on which they lived, these early Jesuits had explored the interior of 
the continent, all the Mississippi valley, and the whole course of 
the mighty father of rivers. The history of their travels is no less 
interesting than that of the early voyagers, who one century earlier 
had explored the region about the Gulf of Mexico, and discovered 
the " South Sea," and the mouth of the ]\Iississippi River. It was 
fortunate for history that these Jesuits were men of education, who 
nearly all wrote accounts of the places they visited, and drew maps 
of the country over which they passed. Our first maps of the Mis- 
sissippi valley we owe to these missionaries. 

One of the earliest Jesuits was Isaac Jogues. He came with an 
earnest desire to do good to the uncivilized Indian, and was one of 
those who went to Lake Huron to establish a mission at St. Mary's, 
on Lake Superior. LTnfortunately the small-pox had broken out in 
the vessel which brought the Jesuits, and the infection spread from 
them to the savages. The Indians regarded the plague as an evil 
spirit sent among them by the priests, and for a time refused to 
listen to them. Poor Isaac Jogues was taken prisoner and dread- 
fully treated. They tore out his finger-nails, and forced him to run 
up and down a line of savage warriors, each of whom would strike 
at him as he ran, with war-clubs or tomahawks, till he was muti- 
lated and bleeding, and almost dead. Yet when he was at length 
released, and sent to his friends, Jogues could not rest till he had 
again been sent to preach to the Indians, and he was finally mur- 



fHE MISSISSIPPI EXPLORED. 153 

dered by them with great tortures. Generall}^ however,the Jesuits 
made friends with the Indians, and were loved by them. Their 
manner of worship attracted the Indians more than the severe and 
simple mode of the Puritans. The priests brought pictures of the 
Virgin and the child Jesus to show the savages ; they wore robes 
of brilliant colors when they celebrated mass ; sometimes they 
would lead a band of Indians in solemn procession bearing banners 
and sacred images, to a place where a rude church was erected ; all 
the ceremonies were like a new kind of play to these children of 
the wilderness, in which they joined with grave delight. 

The New England colonists hated the priests and accused them of 
inciting the savages to carry bloodshed into their borders. I do not 
believe this to be true, as in all the accounts of their lives and char- 
acters they appear to be men of great gentleness and purity, quite 
ready, and even anxious to die for their religion. They advocated 
temperance among the Indians, and when the French fur-traders be- 
gan to sell rum and brandy to the savages, the Jesuits begged that 
the sale of it should be stopped. 

But though they petitioned the French Minister to forbid the -sale 
of liquor to the Indians, they could get no better answer than this : 
" The principle is good, hut it will ruin trade, for the Indians are 
very fond of brandy, and if we do not sell it them, they will go and 
sell their furs to the Dutch traders in New York and get brandy of 
them." 

So the French government said, " Give the Indians the brandy," 
and all the prayers of the Jesuits did not arrest the evil. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE MISSISSIPPI 'explored. I 

James Marquette is sent to the Great River. — He goes with Joliet to Wisconsin. — Carrying 
their Canoes on their Backs. — The Bison and Deer. — Greeting of the Illinois. — Death of 
Marquette. — Robert I,a Salle in Illinois. — Fort Heartbreak. — ISIurder of La Salle. — Hen- 
nepin goes to Falls of St. Anthony. — Adventures of Marquette and Joliet. — Explorations 
of the Mississippi River by La Salle and Hennepin. 

In the year 1673 a very important mission was undertaken by 
two of the Jesuits who had been teaching the Indians in the 
region of Lake Superior. These two men, James Marquette and 
Louis Joliet, were selected by the superior officer of their order to 



154 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

go on a voyage of discovery down among the Illinois Indians. It 
was a mission on which Marquette, who was a most pious and de- 
voted man, had long desired to be sent. Every day for many 
months he had prayed that God would put it into the heart of the 
priest from whom he received his orders, to send him down among 
these unknown savages, to whom he longed to preach the gospel. 
He had, also, another object in view besides the conversion of the 
Illinois tribe. He had heard of a broad river which the Indians 
called "Mississippi " — " great river " — which ran through a beau- 
tiful, fertile country till it reached the sea. You know this was 
more than a century after De Soto had explored the Mississippi, 
from its mouth almost to its junction with the Missouri, and the 
tradition of a great river in the centre of this continent had become 
dim, and was almost forgotten. • None of the French or English 
knew anything about the river, except by rumors from the Indians, 
of a great "father of waters" in the west. So Marquette, who had 
heard these rumors, longed to go and explore there. When he 
heard that leave had been granted him to set out, he fell on his 
knees and thanked God. 

As soon as they were ready to start, Joliet and Marquette called 
together the Indians with whom they had been living, and asked 
them all sorts of questions about the way to the countr}^ of the Illinois. 
The Indians, who loved the good priests, told them all the}^ knew. 
Marquette drew a rude map from the direction they gave, and with 
this poor chart they started in birch bark canoes for the unex]>lored 
wilderness. 

They took to their boats at iNIackinaw, and rowed to Green 
Bay, Wisconsin. Then they took the Fox River, as far as they 
could navigate it, thence across a short piece of swampy prairie, 
over which they carried their birch bark canoes on their shoulders, 
till they reached the Wisconsin River. Embarked on the beautiful 
Wisconsin, they soon floated down to its junction with the Missis- 
sippi, and were borne upon the bosom of the great Father of 
Rivers. I wish you would get the map and trace out this journey 
of Marquette and Joliet. Imagine how perilous it must have 
seemed, and how blind the way was, and then fanc}^ their joy at 
finding the river of which they had heard. The two companions 
paddled merrily on, looking with interest and delight at all they 
saw. It was June, and the shores were green and beautiful. Over 
the prairie they saw herds of bison or buffalo scattered, and some- 



THE MISSISSIPPI EXPLORED. 155 

times a moose or elk, seen in the distance, excited their wonder 
and delight. 

They had been just a week on the river, when to their great joy 
they saw human foot-prints on the bank. They stopped their 
canoes, pulled them up on the shore and followed the trail. In a 
short time they found an Indian village, whence all the ])eople came 
crowding out to see them. It was a village of the Illinois tribe, 
Avhom Marquette had longed to find. 

These people received Marquette Avith great kindness, and made 
a feast for him, where all smoked the calumet, or pipe of peace. 
At the door of the cabin where they were received as guests, an 
old man saluted them in these words : — 

" How beautiful is the sun, O stranger, when thou comest to 
visit us. All our town awaits thee, and thou slialt enter our wig- 
Avams in peace." 

The Indians called Marquette "• Black gown," on account of the 
long black cloth robe reaching to his heels which all of the priests 
wore. 

After a friendly and pleasant visit among these Illinois people, 
Marquette and Joliet took to their boats again, and went down to 
the Arkansas region, to within a few days' sail of the mouth of the 
Mississippi. Their whole voyage is so interesting, that I wish I 
had space to give you a longer account of it. 

Two years after he had been down the river, Marquette was 
taken ill, after a severe winter sojourn in the Illinois region, near 
Avhere the city of Chicago is now built. He felt that he was soon 
to die, and welcomed death with great joy. The companions who 
were with him built a poor little cabin in the dim forest, and while 
they wept at his loss, the good Marquette consoled them, and told 
them not to be sad at his leaving them. When he died, they 
buried him in the lonely wilderness with many tears, for they all 
loved him. His body was afterward taken to Mackinaw, and there 
it reposes at the junction of two lakes whose borders were the 
scenes of his pure labors. 

After Marquette's death, a Frenchman named La Salle planned 
a new exploration of the Mississippi. Robert La Salle had been 
educated for a priest, but not liking the life, he had become a skillful 
captain and navigator. He owned land in Canada, and had been the 
commander of a fort there. When he started to explore the Mis- 
sissippi, he took with him a company of men, — sailors, mechanics, 



156 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

carpenters, and other workmen, that he might be able to build forts, 
or make settlements wherever he might fix upon a favorable spot. 
He went very much the same difficult and roundabout way which 
Marquette had taken, through Green Bay, Wisconsin. Instead of 
taking the Wisconsin River to its junction with the Mississippi, how- 
ever, he took the Illinois River, and by the middle of winter he 
found himself near a small lake called Peoria, in the centre of what 
is now the State of Illinois. He had not found the Indians disposed 
to be as friendly to him as they were to Marquette, and his journey 
to this place had been very hard and discouraging. On a little hill 
near the lake, he set his men to work to build a fort, which he 
called, in French, "Fort Heartbreak." I think this a very piti- 
ful title, and that poor Robert La Salle, who was a brave man, 
must have felt very sore at heart when he gave the place this name. 

It was the winter of 1681 that La Salle finally' got embarked on 
the great Mississippi to go down its current. In a few weeks they 
passed from the frozen region of the Illinois to the beautiful south- 
ern country of verdure and blossoms. They found plum, peach, mul- 
berry, apple, and pear trees in bloom, and the promise of fruits was 
luxuriant. At last, in April, they arrived at the Gulf of Mexico, 
and with great solemnity they planted the cross and raised the arms 
of France aloft on the shore. He called the great river the River 
Colbert^ in honor of the prime minister of France, and taking pos- 
session of the whole country in the name of the " mighty, invinci- 
ble, and victorious Prince Louis of France," he called it Louisiana. 

La Salle made a journey north to tell the results of his voyage, and 
then came back again to the fort which he had left near the mouth 
of the river. In this last expedition he attempted to return to Illi- 
nois by land. Just after he had started back there was mutiny and 
dissatisfaction among his men. Some of these mutineers murdered 
the nephew of La Salle, who was out on an expedition with them.* 
As his nephew did not return. La Salle went out into the forest in 
search of him, taking with him a priest who belonged to the party. 
On his way out. La Salle was very sad, and talked like a man in 
deep melancholy. As they walked on he suddenly came upon the 
bloody neckerchief of his servant, who had also been killed by these 
bad men. While La Salle was examining this, two of the murderers 
who were hidden in the grass, one on each side of him, fired sud- 
denly and gave him a fatal wound in the head. Thus died the 
brave Chevalier Robert La Salle, the first explorer of the Mississippi 



THE LAST COLONIAL WAR. 157 

Kiver from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. It seems almost 
as if the father of rivers had been fatal to its discoverers. Ferdi- 
nand de Soto was buried in its bosom ; James Marquette died in the 
forest not far from its shores ; and Robert La Salle was murdered on 
its banks and buried in a lonely grave within hearing of its waves. 

La Salle had sent one of his company, a priest named Louis 
Hennepin, to explore the Mississippi to the north, when he sailed 
south. Hennepin had gone up as far as the Falls of St. Anthony 
and had given these falls their name. So in this year (1682) the 
whole of the Mississippi region, and all the interior — which they 
now called Louisiana — had been explored by the French. This 
was shortly after King Philip's War in Massachusetts, and Bacon's 
rebellion in Virginia. And at that early day the territory which 
now forms the States of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, 
Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana, had 
been traveled over by these Frenchmen, and in many of these 
States trading-posts for furs, or permanent settlements had been 
already made. Before the English had explored one hundred miles 
west of the sea-coasts, these devoted missionaries had opened up 
the great interior, with its magnificent lakes and rivers. Let us 
say, " All honor to them for their untiring energy and perseverance, 
which they exercised without hope of reward. All honor, also, to 
Robert La Salle, the brave gentleman who sleeps on the banks of 
the Mississippi." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE LAST COLONIAL WAR. 

Position of French and English Colonies. — The English Colonies hug the Sea-coast. — Jealousj' 
between the Nations. — Trouble brewing. — Young George Washington. — His Winter Jour- 
ney to Fort Duquesne. 

I WISH you would try and trace out on a map of the United 
States the position of the French and English colonies in our coun- 
try in the middle of the eighteenth century. If you do so, you will 
see that the English owned all the sea-coast on the Atlantic from 
Maine to Florida. In Florida the Spanish claimed ownership, and 
there they still kept up the old town of St. Augustine, settled in the 
Huguenot Ribault's day. Up to the north the English owned Nova 
Scotia (which the French called Acadie), ever since it had been 



158 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

yielded them by the French in the peace that ended Queen Anne's 
War. The French possessions began in Canada on the St. Law- 
rence, stretclied west to the great lakes, and followed down the 
valley of the Mississippi. They had a line of forts which were half 
military and half trading-posts, beginning at Quebec and extending 
all through the west and south till they reached New Orleans. You 
will see that many of our large cities and towns in the west and 
southwest had their origin in these French posts. The fur-traders, 
and some of the soldiers, became at home in the wilderness. Often 
they married Indian women, who were devoted to their white hus- 
bands and made them very faithful wives. The French were a 
light-hearted, merry people, and they made sunshine in the wilder- 
ness. The Indians called them " good spirits." They joined in the 
dance with the red men, smoked with them, lived in their wig- 
wams, and were able to feel a more friendly regard for them than 
the English ever could feel. Consequently the Indian liked the 
light-hearted Frenchman, and would rather trade for furs witli him 
than the more reserved English trader. 

By the year 1750 the French forts extended from the Ohio River 
as far west as the present State of Kansas. You can see, then, that 
the French settlements somewhat resembled a broad half circle, ex- 
tending around the outer edge of the English colonies. 

Now the grants of land which had been given to the English 
owners in North America by their sovereigns, were supposed, when 
originally given, to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Of 
course when Kings James and Charles granted lands, no one had 
any idea how wide the continent was. Some of the early colonists 
fancied it might be two or three hundred miles wide, but they knew 
nothing about it, and the English showed less inclination to be ex- 
plorers than either the French or Spanish. Instead of pushing into 
the wilderness, they would settle right down on the sea-coast, and 
go to trading with Europe. Yet they always felt that the land at 
their backs, in the great West, was theirs, and year after year it 
made them more uneasy as they heard how the French were finding 
great rivers and countries in the west, and creeping doAvn behind 
them, making stronger forts, and getting all the richest fur trade 
with the Indians. It seems always to have been strongly felt by 
the European nations who settled on the continent, that they must 
own all of it. Over in Europe they got along very well by being 
cut up into small parts, and one nation getting a slice here, and an- 



THE LAST COLONIAL WAR. 159 

other a smaller slice there, but in America, the English, the French, 
and the Spanish, seem to have felt they must have all or none. So 
you see it became as plain as the nose on your face, that the French 
and the English must have a war. The English colonies said to 
themselves, " Either we must crowd the French back out of that 
great tract which they call Louisiana, running west of us, from Lake 
Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico, on both sides the big river, or they 
will crowd us into the Atlantic Ocean, and we shall have no place 
here at all." Feeling as they did, the war had to come, because un- 
fortunately, as yet, nations have no better way of settling their dis- 
})utes than by fighting. Just as two bad boys, when they quarrel 
over their playthings, bite and scratch, and tear each other's eyes, so 
two great nations muster armies of innocent men, and send them 
out face to face to stand up and be fired at with guns and cannons, 
and fill fields with wounded and dying, and fill both countries with 
sobs of women and children whose husbands and fathers have died. 
After they have done this till one of them gets tired of it, and can 
lose no more men, they make peace, and the question is settled by a 
sensible treaty, as it ought to have been in the first place. Of all 
senseless and horrible proceedings, war seems to me the worst, fit 
only for poor savages, and not for civilized men and nations at all. 

Peace was hardly declared after King George's War before the 
French and English in this country began to differ about boundary 
lines. The first uneasiness was felt down in Virginia, where the 
French forts on the Ohio River came nearest their boundaries. 
Governor Dinwiddle (he was then governor of Virginia) sent a 
young major, George Washington, with a message to the French 
commander on the Ohio River, objecting to some of his operations 
there. 

This George Washington you have no doubt heard of if you 
were born in the United States, and are old enough to read. It is 
he who afterwards was known as the " Father of his Country," and 
became one of our greatest heroes. His family had emigrated to 
Virginia in Cromwell's reign, and his great-grandfather was the 
John Washington who had been in tlie Indian war in Maryland, 
just before Bacon's rebellion. George Washington was a major in 
the Virginia military forces, and as he was born in Virginia, and 
knew the country well, he was just the man for Dinwiddle to send 
on such an erraud. 

He had a very hard journey, in cold weather, over mountains 



160 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



and rivers, wading and climbing, sometimes on foot and sometimes 
on horseback, often in great danger from Indians. Once he and the 
gentleman mth him worked all night with only one miserable 
hatchet, to make a rude raft to cross a river which was too large 
and dee\) to ford ; all the time fearing the savages would come upon 
them. But they reached the French post on the Ohio at length, 
and saw the French commander, who did not give any satisfactory 
answer to their inquiries, and then they had the weary journey 
back again. 

This expedition of Washington's decided Virginia that there 
must be war, and in this war all the colonies were united in feeling 
a desire to resist the French power in this country. Even weak 
Georgia, who had only been settled a little more than twenty years, 
was ready to do her best with grown up Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia. 

In 1754 an expedition from Virginia, with George Washington 

as the second in com- 
mand, was sent to- 
"\\ ards Pittsburg, or 
\\here Pittsburg is 
now built. They were 
( ommanded to build 
<i fort at the junction 
of rivers which form 
the Ohio, and to fight 
any one who molested 
them. Before they 
had proceeded far, a 
< ompany of French 
came, drove them 
away, and went on 
with the building of 

Braddock's Head-quarters in Virginia. ^]^g f^^,^^ .^j-^d named it 

Fort Duquesne. This is where Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, now stands. 
They had some fighting about here, and, his superior officer dying, 
young Washington, then only twenty-two years old, was made the 
commander of those forces. In the end he was beaten, and had to 
go back to Virginia, and this was the opening of the French and 
Indian War. 




FOUR EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH. 161 

CHAPTER XXXL 

FOUR EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH. 

Plan of the Campaign. — Braddock's Contempt for American Militia. — George Washington 
in the Expedition. — Braddock's Defeat. — French Neutrals. — Burning of Acadie. — 
Evangeline. — Sir William Jclmson. — King Hendrick killed. 

After war was really begun over liere, England, whom the colo- 
nists always called the " Mother Country," sent over one of the 
officers of her army to be the general of all the forces here. Troops 
were gathered in from all the colonies, and the sounds of the drum 
and fife, calling soldiers together, was heard all over the towns and 
villages of this new country. When the English general, whose 
name was Braddock, came to America, he found the colonies all 
ripe for war. The leading warriors all put their heads together and 
talked it over, and tliis was what they planned to do for their first 
campaign. 

They agreed to divide into four divisions. General Braddock 
would take one and go down and attack Fort Duquesne, on the 
Ohio, where Washington had been beaten back. The second 
division, under command of General Winslow, was to go to the 
Bay of Fund}^ and look after Nova Scotia. This General Winslow 
was a grandson of Josiah Winslow, w^io had beaten the Indians in 
King Philip's War, and he was supposed to have good fighting 
blood in him. The third division, under Governor Shirley of Mas- 
sachusetts, was to attack Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, and 
Fort Niagara on Lake Erie. Finally, the fourth division, under Sir 
William Johnson, who lived in New York, and was well known 
among the Mohawk Indians, whom he hoped to induce to join his 
troops, was to attack two principal strongholds of the French known 
as Crown Point and Tieonderoga. Crown Point was on Lake Cham- 
plain, and Tieonderoga on Lake George in the present State in New 
York. 

Now, for a little while, we will follow the fortunes of each of these 
four divisions as they set out on their diverse roads to subdue their 
hated French enemies. 

Braddock went first in the summer of 1755, to make his attack 
on Fort Duquesne. He had brought over soldiers, and guns, and 
powder, and various stores from England, and landed them in Vir- 
ginia. He started on his march, accompanied by some of the Vir- 
11 




162 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ginia militia, with young George Washington as his aide-de-cam]>. 
His way was rough and hard, a good deal of mountain climbing to 
do, rivers to ford, and trackless forests to pass through. The sol- 
diers, fresh from England, used to their own settled and level coun- 
try, hardly knew how to endure such hardships, and began to be 
discouraged and tired out before they had hardly begun their march. 
The colonist-troops, on the other hand, used to Indian fighting and 
life in the wilderness, were quite at home there. 
But General Braddock, who was a high-tempered, 
arrogant British officer, made uj) his mind before- 
hand to feel nothing but contempt for the colonists 
and their leaders, and paid no attention to their 
suggestions, when, if he had had the sense to have 
listened to them, they might have helped him 
greatly. The consequence was tliat Braddock was 
'^1^^^^'-^^^^^ attacked by a party of French and Indians before 
Braddock. j^g rcachcd Fort Duquesne, and met with a terrible 

defeat. The general was killed, and if it had not been for some of 
the despised colonists with Washington at their head, very few Eng- 
lish would have been left alive. As it was, they lost hundreds of 
soldiers, while the French lost only a handful. And this was the 
end of Braddoclc s Expedition. 

In the mean time, General Winslow, the New England com- 
mander, had started with his party for the Bay of Fundy. Nearly 
all these men were Massacliusetts men, who hated the French and 
the Catholics more intensely than any other of the colonies. They 
believed that almost every attack of the Indians«on their farms and 
villages during all the wars of William and Anne and George, was 
due to the influence of the Jesuits, whom they abhorred with all 
their might and "main. Consequently they were delighted to march 
against Nova Scotia, which, although it belonged to the English by 
treaty with the French, was really settled entirely by French Cath- 
olics. These people were called French " neutrals," because they 
would not fight against the French, and were not allowed to fight 
for them. Tliey were peacefully working their farms and minding 
their own affairs, with war and rumors of war all about them. 

The English chiefs, however, feared that these French neutrals 
would take part with their brother Frenchmen, and I have very 
little doubt they might some of them have done so. But even that 
fear did not justify the cruel conduct of the English. I am sure 
that you will think so, too, when I tell you what they did. 



FOUR EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE FRENCH. 



163 



As soon as they arrived in the beautiful Basin of Minas, the Imr- 
bor on whose borders these French neutrals were settled, they issued 
an order that the people all over the country should meet in their 
parish churches, and hear a proclamation, which the English 
wished to read to them. 

The people in the settlements — there were about 15,000 in all 
— left their work and flocked to the churches. The farmer left his 
harvest field, the blacksmith his anvil, and the wife and maiden 
their spinning-wheels. When they got inside their churches they 
found themselves surrounded by crowds of red-coated British sol- 
diers. Unarmed, and unable to resist, they were hustled to the 
harbor, and crowded on board the English ships like herds of sheep 
and lambs who are to be sent to the slaughter-house. Families were 
torn apart ; wives lost their husbands ; and mothers looking over their 
flock of little ones, often found part of their children missing. Out- 
cries and bitter sobbing pierced the air, and ought to have pierced 
the hearts of their oppressors. But the ships sailed away with 
these poor people, and the hearts of the English remained steeled. 
As they sailed down the harbor in the twilight, the captives saw the 
soft September sky painted with a terrible glare, which lighted with 
lurid glow the whole heavens. It was the burning of their homes 
and barns and corn-ricks, which their merciless enemies had de- 
stroyed, that they might also destroy 
the last hope of the poor Acadians 
of ever findincf their homes acain. 

All over the country these poor 
people Avere scattered. J\Iany never 
met again the dear ones from whom 
they had been torn, and died of 
homesickness and heartbreak, A 
little company of them went down to 
the mouth of the Mississippi, and 
settled in the country about New 
Orleans. ' Some of the young maid- 
ens and children, separated from 
their parents, were made " bound 
servants" in the families of English 
colonists. Our poet Longfellow has 
written a lovely poem called " Evan- 
geline," which tells all this sad story of Acadie, and the history 




Evangeline. 



164 



STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of one of these Acadian exiles, torn from the home she had loved, 
and all she held dear. 




Acadians leaving Home. 



The next division of the army was commanded by Sir William 
Johnson. He was born in England, and had been appointed " In- 



,^^^%\ 



dian Agent" (or manager of affairs and trade 
with the Indians) of the colony of New York. 
He lived in a fine mansion, which he built upon 
an eminence overlooking the Mohawk River, and 
had been ver}^ successful in making friends with 
King Hendrick, the chief of the Mohawk In- 
dians, and in gaining the good-will of the tribe. 
Sir William, who was a tall, elegant looking 
man, had adopted a dress not unlike that of an 
Indian chief, and wore leggings of deer-skin, and belt embroidered 
with wampum, so that he looked, when browned by the sun and 




Sir William Johnson. 



FOUK EXrp:DITION.S AGAINST THE FRENCH. 



165 



wind, like a hand.soine Indian warrior. He had also taken an In- 
dian maiden, the daughter of a chief, for his wife, and this aided to 
make his friendship with the Mohawk tribe more secure. 

These Indians, therefore, were quite ready to come to the aid of 
Sir William Johnson when the war broke out ; and when he began 
his march against the French forts at Crown Point and Ticon- 
deroga, a large party of Indian allies went with him. A party of 
the English forces had already built a fort a few miles above Al- 
bany called Fort Edward, and Sir William joined them and went 




Block-house on Lake Erie 



on toward the place where he expected to begin liis siege. All at 
once he heard that a body of French troops were coming on to at- 
tack him. He sent ahead a party of Indians and Americans to 
meet them, and these forces were beaten back by the French, and 
their two leaders killed. Both these leaders were men whose names 
ought to be remembered. The Indian was King Hendrick, the 
Mohawk chief, a noble and brave Indian. The American leader 
was Colonel Ephraim Williams, who, just before setting out to take 
part in this war, had made his will, giving his property to estab- 



166 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

lish a college in Massachusetts. The institution now exists under 
the name of Williams College. This college remains as a proof 
that the early founders of this country remembered, in all their 
dark days of Indian warfare, the necessity for schools and universi- 
ties in this new land. 

After dispersing the forces of King Hendrick and Colonel Will- 
iams, the French swept down upon Johnson. There they suffered 
severe retribution. Johnson had had time to get ready for them, 
and, when they attacked him, defeated them completely, taking their 
leader prisoner. He concluded, however, not to go on to Crown 
Point, and contented himself wdth building the fort at the north- 
ern part of Lake George (Fort William Henry). He also ordered 
the building of a line of forts all along the frontier from Albany 
to Oswego, and the wdiole of northern New York began to be well 
fortified and assume a warlike appearance. 

The expedition under Governor Shirley against the forts on the 
lakes did not begin favorably. Indeed it 
began so unfavorably that it was decided to 
abandon it for that time, and after sending a 
few hundred men to defend Fort William 
Henry, just built by Johnson's men, Shirley 
returned to Boston. 

Such w^ere the results of the four plans of 
campaign for the year 1755, wdiich celebrated 
the opening of the great struggle for possession of this country 
between the French and English. You can imagine if you like 
what a difference it would have made in this United States, and in 
the people who live here, if the French had been in the end victo- 
rious. I doubt very much if there would have been any such 
country as the United States, if the colonies here had been made 
subjects of France. 




SECOND YEAR OF WAR. 167 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

SECOND YEAR OF WAR. 

French Fortifications in America. — War in earnest. — Story of Mrs. Howe and her Cliildren. 
. — Massacre at Fort William Henry. — Loss of a Noble Young Leader. — George Washino'- 
ton's Advice to tiie British Colonel. — The Cit\' of Quebec. — Wolfe approaches the Fortress. 
— The Heights of Abraham. — Defeat of the French. — Death of Wolfe. — Peace at last. 

In the close of the last year, the mother countiies had pre- 
tended not to take any share in the war of their American colonies. 
But the}^ now began to see that it was time for them to take a more 
active part, and therefore France and England declared war against 
each other, for the fourth time in about seventy-five years. 

Before we go any farther, I wish you to full}^ understand the 
exact position of the princij)al French and English forts in America. 
The description will not be very interesting, but it is necessary for 
you to get the position of the two countries mapped out in your 
head, in order that you may understand the plan of the war. For 
you know in a war for the possession of a country, the one who 
takes the most forts or strongholds will in the end be the victor. 

First, then, the eastern end of the French line of forts was at 
Louisburg, a very strong place on Cape Bteton Island, commanding 
all the fisheries and the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. Next 
came Quebec and Montreal, the two old towns on the St. Lawrence. 
Then came Crown Point and Ticonderoga in New York, on Lake 
Champlain and Lake George. Fort Frontenac, where La Salle used 
to command almost a century before, was on Lake Ontario, and 
Fort Niagara was between the two lakes. The French line of 
strongholds thence extended down the Ohio River at Fort Duquesne, 
where Braddock was killed, and from thence all along the Missis- 
sippi, where they ended in New Orleans. There were a great many 
of these forts all over the Northwest, but I have only given you the 
names of those which were most important in the war. 
/ Until this war began, the English had paid little attention to 
fortifying their western border. But as soon as the troubles broke 
out, they went to building forts, and at the opening of the second 
year of war, they had several important positions. Fort Cumber- 
land was built in Virginia, where George Washington was com- 
manding the forces of the colony. Forts Edward and William 



168 ' STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Henry were built in eastern New York, near Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga. They were also strengthening their lines all along in 
New York, where they ended in the strongly fortified town of Os- 
wego. Besides these, of course their sea-coast towns, of Boston, 
New York, and Charleston, were always carefully guarded. 

Now can you see it all like the pieces on a chess board ? If the 
English take Louisburg, Quebec, Ticonderoga, and the rest, they 
will beat France. If they cannot get them, and the French take 
Oswego and William Henry, get down to the city of Albany and 
take that, and then keep pressing in on the borders of Virginia and 
New England, in the end they will crowd the English out and get 
the rule here. Keep all this in mind now and we will rapidl}' fol- 
low the motions of the two armies. 

As soon as they declared war openly, the French sent over to 
Canada a very able commander, named ^Montcalm, and the English 
sent two generals, Loudon and Abercrombie, each commander with 
troops and war ships. Loudon was not a very able man, and Aber- 
crombie soon superseded him. 

As soon as war began in earnest, the worst feature of it, as usual, 
was the Indian raids upon defenseless villages. The peace that Sir 
William Johnson kept with the Mohawks in New York, helped 
them greatly there, but in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and ISIassachu- 
setts these were dreadful days. The Indians were so bold that 
they came once within thirty miles of the city of Philadelphia, and 
the lonely little villages, remote from large cities, lived in constant 
dread. I could tell you stories enough to fill a great book, of white 
people who were taken captive and carried off to slavery by these 
terrible foes. 

One summer morning in July a troop of hooting and yelling sav- 
ages rushed into a little village in New Hampshire. After their work 
of destruction and death was over, they left the settlement with a 
band of captives, among whom was a Mrs. Howe and her seven chil- 
dren. They scattered the children in various French families along 
the route, selling them to any family among the French who would 
give them gay calico for their squaws, or an iron kettle in, which to 
cook food, or even a drink of " fire-water," to quench their thirst 
for the new strong liquor which the white man had brought among 
them. They permitted Mrs. Howe to keep her baby, who was only 
a helpless infant, and with this in her arms they took her to l\Ion- 
treal. Her dearest wish was to be sold to some decent French peo- 



SECOND YEAR OF WAR. 169 

pie as a slave, for terrible as it seemed for a free-born English 
woman to live in slavery, it was a bright fate compared to the pros- 
pect of being kept among the savages. But at Montreal her hope 
died out. No one would buy her because she had her infant with 
her. " We do not want a slave with a child," they said, " she will 
be nothing but a burden to us." 

On this slie was taken back into the wilderness, and her last child, 
her baby, was torn from her arms and given away, she knew not 
where, nor to whom. In the forest among the Indians, she suffered 
the acutest tortures of hunger, and when winter approached, of cold 
also. A few acorns found in the wood . were a feast for her. In 
her dreams she heard the crying of her poor children, till it often 
seemed as if her mind would give way and she should go mad. At 
length she found her baby, and one of her other children, in the 
wigwam of an Indian family. When, with a cry of joy, she took 
her baby in her arms, the poor little creature was in such a famished 
condition that it bit its mother in the face like a starved wild animal. 
Fortunately, the poor infant soon died, and its sufferings were at 
an end. 

In the spring her captors once more took Mrs. Howe to a French 
village, and succeeded in selling her. Her owners were kindly 
people and she was comfortable once more in body. But you can 
fancy what heart-ache she felt, torn from her kindred and home, as 
she saw herself day after day sinking into hopeless bondage, expect- 
ing to die a miserable slave. Such was the fate of many an English 
and French captive in these hoi'rible wars. But Mrs Howe's case 
proved happier. Colonel Philip Schuyler, who was a prominent citi- 
zen of Albany, heard of her condition, and himself sent her money 
by which, she was able to purchase her own liberty and that of four 
of her sons. With these rescued children she returned to her home 
in New Hampshire. After the war she journeyed to Canada and 
recovered another child, a daughter. One of her daughters, who 
had been sold to the governor of Canada, was taken to France and 
respectably married there. This story is only one among thousands 
not unlike it, which are found in the annals of the French and In- 
dian wars in America. 

The close of the year 1757 looked very dark for the English. 
The French had succeeded in taking Oswego, one of their strongest 
points. Montcalm, the French general, had laid siege to Fort 
William Henry. The garrison had held out nobly ; but at last, their 



170 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

powder giving out, tliey were obliged to give up. Colonel Munroe 
was the commander there, and he obtained the pledge that his band 
of soldiers should go out unharmed from the fortress, leaving it to 
the French. The French commander gave his word, but no sooner 
had the brave little garrison marched a short distance from the fort, 
than a band of Indians, allies of the French, fell upon them and 
slew them without mercy. 

The English colonies were filled with gloom and anxiety, and 
complained so loudly that some of their fears spread among their 
friends in England, and at the beginning of 1758 much more vigor- 
ous measures were taken. Three expeditions were sent out at once, 
against Louisburg, Ticonderoga, and Duquesne. The force which be- 
seiged Louisburg after a hard siege took the town, thus getting one 
of the best strongholds of the enemy, and the control of the entrance 
to Canada. 

At the same time General Abercrombie went to Ticonderoga, and 
here a sad event occurred for the English array. They were de- 
feated, and lost many men. Among others a brave young general, 
Lord Howe, was killed, who of all their 
leaders was the one most liked by the col- 
onists. Nearly all the British officers, like 
Braddock, had felt and shown great con- 
tempt for the colonial soldiers and leaders, 
and this contempt for the advice and experi- 
ence of the residents in America lost the 
English many battles. But Lord Howe was 
a young soldier of better sense than most of 
Lord Howe tlic others. He lived like a ])lain soldier, in 

a tent in the fields, dressed plainly, and ate soldier's fare. He found 
the soldiers' lives were often endangered by their long-tailed army 
coats, which the Indians would catch at from their ambush behind 
trees, and he ordered all his soldiers to wear jackets, wearing one 
himself to set the example. He gave every attention to the health 
of his men, providing in all ways that he could for their comfort, 
and when they had discomforts he shared them with the men. Of 
course he was loved by every one; all called him a model com- 
mander," and when he died, fighting before Ticonderoga, all the 
country mourned for the young man, as a true gentleman and hero. 
Abercronibie's forces did some good service, however, after the de- 
feat at Ticonderoga. They went down to Oswego, retook it from 
the French, and afterward captured Fort Frontenac. 




SECOND YEAK OF WAR. 171 

Colonel Forbes led the army against Duquesne. When he got as 
far as Cumberland, George Washington, who commanded there, 
said to him, " You had better go by Braddock's old road. A good 
many trees are cut down, and bridges built, in that road, and it will 
save time and labor." But a British officer had no idea of paying 
any attention to young Washington, who was nothing but a col- 
onist, and so he started to make a new road. This hewing a fresh 
path through the wilderness caused them great delay and suffering, 
and might have caused the ruin of the whole expedition. Fortu- 
nately for them, however, the French heard stories of their coming, 
and fancied them much stronger than they really were. They were 
very short of provisions in the fort, and just before the English got 
there, they set fire to the place and ran away. The English took it 
and changed the name of Duquesne to Pittsburg, and a flourishing 
city stands there to-day, on the site of the old French fort. This 
year ended in English rejoicing, with Louisburg and Duquesne in 
their possession, and Oswego back again, beside the smaller fort, 
Frontenac, which they had also taken. 

■^ Now that they held two such important points in the French 
lines as Louisburg and Duquesne, the English thought if they could 
only take Quebec the French power would be completely broken. 
But it was not an easy matter to take Quebec. You would say so 
if you had ever seen the town. It is built high up on the top of a 
precipice, at least two hundred feet above the St. Lawrence River, 
and the steep, rocky cliff looks as if no human foot could scale it. 

A brave j^oung English general, James Wolfe, had been at the 
taking of Louisburg, and behaved so gallantly there, that it was de- 
cided to send him to make an attempt on Quebec. He accordingly 
sailed thither with a large fleet, and disembarked on the opposite 
shore of the St. Lawrence, on a low-lying point of land known as 
Point Levi. By this time the French were growing uneasy at the 
English successes. They knew they must hold Quebec or acknowl- 
edge themselves beaten. They summoned at once the soldiery in 
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, who left those posts and came up 
to defend their more important fortress. For two months General 
Wolfe lay in his quarters at Point Levi, looking over at Quebec, 
and thinking how it were best to attack it. The town itself was 
built within a strong wall. Back of the city, lay broad green fields 
known as the " Plains of Abraham." Wolfe, who was constantly 
studying some means of reaching the top of the cliff, one day dis- 



172 STORY OF OUR COUKTRY. 

covered a little cove at the foot of tlie heights which ascended to 
these plains. From this cove, where boats could be run in, he 
thought the heights could be scaled. On a quiet, moonless evening 
in September, the army crossed noislessly in small boats, and under 
cover of night began the ascent. They were obliged to catch at 
projecting rocks, twigs, and roots of trees, to pull themselves up. 
Of all their artillery they could only get up one small cannon. 
How they ever dragged even that uj), it is difficult to imagine. 

On the way across the river, in the silent night, Wolfe, lying in 
his boat, wrapped in a cloak, murmured softly to himself some 
verses of Gray's " Elegy," and when he had finislied, said, " I 
would rather have written that poem than take Quebec." 

In the morning when the French were awake, the}^ saw something 
stirring out on the Plains of Abraham. They rubbed their eyes in 
wonder. It could not be possible ! They could not believe their 
senses. And yet it really was the English army. 

Montcalm was in Quebec, and on finding that the enemy were in- 
deed on the plains, he went to meet them with his whole force. A 
severe battle began. Wolfe was wounded twice, but still fought he- 
roically. As he led on his men in a final attack, he was struck in 
the side and fell with a deadly wound. At this moment he heard 
the cry, " They run ! They run ! " " Who run ? " he asked eagerly. 
" The French! " " Go," he cried, " cut off the retreat of the fugi- 
tives to the bridge." Then sinking back into the arms of his at- 
tendants, he said, " I die in peace," and breathed his last breath. 

Montcalm was also killed in this battle, which was a fatal one for 
the French. With the taking of Quebec, they knew that their power 
was broken in America. Almost at the same time of the taking of 
Quebec, came news that Sir William Johnson had taken Fort Niag- 
ara which was the only place of consequence, except Montreal, left 
to the French in their whole line from Louisburg to Duquesne. 

Now the people in Boston and New York rang their bells and 
shouted and hurrahed. The boys built bonfires, and everybody in 
the English cause was delighted at the approach of peace. The 
French governor went down to Montreal, and concentrated his 
forces there, but it was no use. They were obliged to confess them- 
selves beaten. This was in 1759, and peace would have been de- 
clared at once if the English government had not felt so elated 
over their success that they carried the war down into some of the 
West India islands owned by the French, and conquered those. In 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 



173 



1762 peace was at last made between France and England. France 
had to give up all her possessions in Canada to the English, and all 
her claim to America, except the tract known as Louisiana. I have 
already told you what a large tract that was, a good many times 
larger than the present State of Louisiana. 

To pay Spain for helping her in the war, they then were obliged 
to give Spain the Louisiana country, and thus France lost her last 
claim to North America. Canada has ever since belonged to the 
English. Yet there are still many traces of the early French col- 
ony there. If you go to Quebec or Montreal, you will find that these 
towns are largely French. In the streets, stores, and markets you 
will hear almost as much French as English ; 
and you will see the Jesuit priests in their 
long black robes, mingling with English sol- 
diers in the streets. Outside the walls, on the 
green Plains of Abraham, is a granite monu- 
ment with the simple inscription, " Here lies 
Wolfe, victorious." 

The fortress in Quebec is still very strong, 
much stronger than when Wolfe took it, and General woife. 

there is always a large garrison there. Tlie English are not 
afraid of the French any more. They cannot retake Quebec, but 
there is another great nation on her borders, against whom she 
would think it more necessary to keep Quebec guarded. Can you 
guess what nation it is ? I am going to tell you directly how 
there came to be this new nation in America. Only I wish first 
to take you among the thirteen colonies, and see in what condition 
they find themselves after this last French war. 




CHAPTER XXXIH. 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 

Sailing for Boston. — Boston in 1760. — Dress of Lady and Gentleman. — Thanksgiving in 
New England. — Irish Flax Spinners. — By Stage-coach to New Haven. — New York 
Harbor. — A Dutch Interior. — Drive through New York Citj-. — New Year's Day. — Up 
the Hudson to Albany. — Journey through New Jersey. — How Philadelphia Streets were 
named. — The Great State-house Bell. — Account of Benjamin Franklin. — Plantations in 
Virginia. — Christmas Festivities. — A Group of Noble Virginians. — Cotton Crop of Eliza 
lAicas. 

Well, French rule is over in North America, and the English col- 
onists breathe freely. They have always been afraid that those 



174 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

dreadful " Jesuits and Papists " would get control of affairs here, 
and they are very happy at having the dread removed. But this 
happiness is to be brief. In less than fifteen years these colonies, 
who are now rejoicing in the victory of their " dear mother- 
country " over that abominable nation of France, will be strug- 
gling to wrest their hberties from England, as men struggle 
from the grasp of their deadly enemy. There is a cloud now on 
their sky no bigger than a man's hand, which has in it all the thun- 
der of rebellion. As yet, however, they do not see the cloud, and 
while they take a resting and breathing spell after the long war, 
you and I will go on a journey over these thirteen colonies, visit 
some of the largest cities, and see how these people are getting on. 
■ Can you go back in imagination to the year 1760, and fancy your- 
self an English boy or girl about to take ship for his majesty's col- 
onies in North America ? You cannot go there in a steamship, you 
know. There are no steamships, no steam-engines, no means of 
traveling by steam. Just .about this time, a man in England, 
named James Watt, is experimenting with steam, to see what can 
be done with it, but people generally have very little confidence 
that his labors will amount to anything. 

So we will leave England in a sailing vessel, and shall be five or six 
weeks on the voyage, landing at last, very dirty and travel-worn, in 
the harbor at Boston, the largest town in New England. This city 
is now one hundred and thirty years old, and is really quite a stir- 
ring metropolis. As we come up the harbor, we can see the English 
flag flying from the pubhc buildings, and we know we are under the 
protection of English law, and the rule of an English governor. 

The city, as you see, is built upon three hills, and already some 
fine looking houses are scattered about. Rather irregularly, how- 
ever, for this city was not carefully laid out when first settled, like 
Philadelphia or the new town of Savannah in Georgia. There are 
from 16,000 to 20,000 people in the city, and the spires of ten 
churches rise from among the clustering houses of brick and wood. 

That fine-house of brick, tlfree stories high, belongs to Governor 
Hutchinson, the Ueutenant-governor and chief -justice of the colony. 
If we enter the house, we shall find a large hall with massive stair- 
case heavily carved, the floor laid in elegant mosaic of different 
woods. In the parlors the walls are painted in fresco, fluted columns 
supporting the ceiling, and heavy mahogany furniture is set round m 
stately grandeur. There are many houses in Boston which rival 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 



175 



Governor Hutchinsoirs in magnificence, and these things show a 
great improvement in arts and manufactures since the time the col- 
onists first hmded at Plymouth. Another fine house is the Province 
House. It stands on the principal street, a stately pile of brick, 
with the king's arms, handsomely gilded, put over the entrance. It 
has a little garden-plot in front, in wliicli are a few trees. A cupola 
surmounts it, with the figure of an Indian on top, made of bronze. 




John Hancock's Residence, Boston. 

A little farther down is the court-house, which is thought quite a 
grand building ; and still farther on is Peter Faneuil's new struct- 
ure, Faneuil Hall, the most imposing in the town. Near the court-, 
house is the " South Meeting-house," and at the other end of the 
town, on Copp's Hill, stands the "-North Meeting-house." King's 
Chapel is the Episcopal church, and here the king's officers, who 
are nearly all stanch churchmen, attend worship. 

Across Charles River, in the town of Cambridge, stands Harvard 
College, a flourishing university, almost as old as the town itself. 
There many of the rising youug men of Massachusetts have gradu- 
ated, among whom are Mr. John Adams and Mr. John Hancock of 
Braintree, who have both just left its walls. 

Dress has also changed very much since the time of James I. and 
Charles II. The Puritans could, not be called " Roundheads" any 



176 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

more. They wear great powdered wigs when they go out in full 
dress, or else powder their own hair, and tie it behind in a long 
queue. Do you see that gentleman standing in his door taking a 
sniff of morning air before he goes out to walk ? It is one of the 
prominent citizens. He has on a red velvet cap, with an inside cap 
of white linen which turns over the edge of the velvet two or three 
inches ; a blue damask dressing-gown lined with skj^-blue silk ; a 
white satin waistcoat, with deej) embroidered flaps ; black satin 
breeches with long white silk stockings, and red morocco slippers. 
When he goes out into the street he will change his velvet cap for 
a three-cornered hat ; his flowered brocade for a gold-laced coat of 
red or blue broadcloth, with deep lace raffles at the wrists ; put a 
sword at his side, and wear a pair of shoes with great silver or gold 
buckles. Then he will be a well-dressed gentleman of the eight- 
eenth century. If he were a very young man, and a good deal of 
a dandy, his toilet would be more elaborate. His shirt front would 
be trimmed with fine lace, with a great brooch stuck in it, his 
breeches of green or red velvet, or white, lilac, or blue satin, and 
his morocco shoes would have diamond buckles. 

The lady in the next house, who is going to a dinner party, sat 
three hours under the barber's hands to get her hair done in that 
amazing mass of frizzles and puff's and rolls, one upon the other, till 
it looks like a Pyramid or the Tower of Babel. She has on a bro- 
cade dress, green ground with great flowered sprigs on it, looped up 
over a pink satin petticoat. It is very low in the neck, with a lace 
stomacher, and is very tightly pulled over a stiff hoop which sticks 
out so on both sides that she has to go in at the door sideways. 
The heels of her shoes are very high, and she wears beautiful white 
silk stockings. Do you think her tastefully dressed ? At home she 
wears a cap and a pretty chintz gown, a neat 
little white apron and muslin kerchief over 
her neck. These are the rich people who 
dress thus. The farmers' wives wear checked 
dresses of linen for summer and linsey-wool- 
sey for winter, which they spin themselves; 
while their husbands and sons wear stout 
leather breeches, and checked shirts or 
smock-frocks. On every day but Sunday, 
the mechanics and laborers wear leather 
Spinning-wheel. aprous, aud are not ashamed of this badge 




A TOUR IN AMERICA. 177 

of employment. This is the way the people look in America in 
these prosperous days. The sober Roundheads of Cromwell's 
time would hardly know their American brothers of George the 
Third's day. 

The Puritan people have changed more in dress than in manners. 
They still keep strict watch over the religious habits of their church- 
members, and they look on the Church of England as very little 
short of Popery. They will not keep Christmas nor any like holi- 
day. Instead, their chief day in the year is Thanksgiving Day, 
which they celebrate in the fall, after the harvest is gathered. 
Then the good housewives cook pumpkin pies and mince pies for a 
week beforehand, and at dinner on the eventful day, the table 
groans under the weight of turkeys, chickens, pies, and smoking 
plum-puddings. They have frequent tea-drinkings — the American 
women are famous for their passion for the Chinese herb — where 
the women take their knitting-work and sewing for the afternoon, 
and end the day with a sociable cup of tea. The residents of New 
England who favor more latitude of amusement than is found in 
the simple social life just described, are generally either those of 
English birth who hold office under the crown, or the children of 
the rich Americans who have imbibed worldly notions abroad. In 
the. country, the life is still more primitive and untainted by any 
breath of fashion. 

Although Boston is the great centre of Massachusetts in 1760, we 
must not imagine that Boston is all of New England. Industrious 
and thriving towns are growing up all over these colonies. In the 
town of Derry, in New Hampshire Colony, a company of thrifty 
people, called Scotch-Irish, settled forty or fifty years ago, bringing 
with them their wheels for spinning flax. They taught the Massa- 
chusetts women to spin better linen than they had yet been able to 
produce. All along the coast of Maine, still a province of Massa- 
chusetts, the hardy lumbermen are cutting down the great pine- 
trees of Maine, making them into masts for vessels, which they send 
by ship-loads to England. In all the growing towns on the sea- 
coasts, the hammer of the ship-carpenter and the boat-builder is 
heard. To be sure, nearly all manufactured articles are brought 
from England ; still, many kinds of manufactures are successfully 
begun. They are making shoes in Lynn, cotton and woolen cloth 
in Rhode Island, and very good silk for ribbons and dresses in Con- 
necticut. Everywhere new industries are starting up, that the 

12 



178 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



people may not be obliged to send so far for the comforts and luxu- 
ries of life. 

If we should stay long enough to visit all the places in New Eng- 
land which have something interesting about them, we should 
stop at least a year. We cannot spend so long a time, therefore we 
will take the stage-coach from Boston to New York city. We shall 
be at least a fortnight on the way. If the fall rains are heavy, and 
the roads muddy, we shall be longer perhaps, an^ if the stage gets 
into a deep rut of mud, all the passengers will get out, and pry the 
clumsy old vehicle out upon solid ground again. 




American Stage-coach. 



On we go then in the stage-coach. The driver sounds his horn, 
cracks his whip, and we whirl along merrily. In the evening we 
have a great bull's-eye lantern in front of our coach, glaring like an 
eye of fire, as we crash along through forests, and over lonely roads. 
We go through Connecticut, through the towns of Hartford and 
New Haven, — the towns settled by the west country people in 
1635.1V' New Haven has a college called Yale, founded in 1701. 
In that year a party of plain Connecticut farmers met together, 
each bringing a few books, which he laid down saying, " I give these 
to found a college for learning in Connecticut." That little begin- 
ing has flourished, and Yale is already a powerful rival of Harvard. "" 

At New Haven we have reached Long Island Sound, and if we 
choose, we can here take a vessel for New York. If we choose too, 
we may, before leaving New England, go by the Sound to New- 
port, and see how Roger Williams's colony flourishes. We shall 
find Providence a thriving city, and her sister town of Newport, by 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 179 

the aid of its splendid harbor, growing more prosperous every year. 
Here, into the beautiful Narragansett Bay, ships come from abroad, 
loaded with rich cargoes. If Roger Williams had been ever so 
much of a dreamer, he could hardly have dared to dream so much 
prosperity could come to his poor, struggling colony in little more 
than lAcentury. 

And now we have left New England, the home of the Puritans 
and Pilgrims, and are in New York, the New Amsterdam of the 
stirring Dutch traders. If we go by a vessel, we can sail up to the 
foot of the island right in the teeth of the guns which the Dutch 
fired against the British when they came to take the city in 1664. 
The fortifications are stronger now, and they have a line of guns 
all around the " Battery," as the lower end of the city is called. 
Behind the fortifications, the Battery is planted with fine shade 
trees, which look green and beautiful. Here and there you see a 
windmill, which reminds you of the early days when brave Peter 
Stuyvesant was governor. Let us walk up the principal street. \It 
is called Broadway ; Avhat odd looking houses, of yellow and black 
bricks, with great iron figures on the front to tell when the house 
was built! Some of the brick houses have dates as early as 1650 
and 1660. >^They have very pointed gable roofs, with weather-cocks 
on top. The houses have balconies in front, and in the summer 
evenings you will see the families sitting there to enjoy the fresh 
sea-breeze. Would you like to go into one of the houses of the 
Dutch citizens? They are very nice and clean, for these Holland 
people are the tidiest in the world. This is the best room. There 
is no carpet, although a few of the richest people in the colonies 
are beginning to use them. Instead there is a large drugget in 
the middle of the floor. The Avails are not papered, but there are a 
great many pictures in little frames, hung all over them. See the 
great wide chimney with blue and white tiles, with Bible pictures 
on them, all inlaid about the chimney-piece. On each side the 
chimney is a deep alcove, which makes two cozy nooks, in which 
we could sit to read or sew. The great high bedstead, with feather 
bed, is in the corner, and in that high chest of drawers beside it are 
stores on stores of linen sheets, not very fine, but very white, which 
the thrifty housewife and her daughters have spun themselves. 
There are also stores of home-knit stockings of red, green, and blue 
yarn, and you will see in the street many stout legs cased in red or 
green stockings which have been knit by the quick fingers of 



180 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

mothers and wives. The chairs are leather-covered, with high 
backs ; and two chairs covered with " blue damask trimmed with 
silver lace " are very carefully kept, because they are too nice to be 
used, except on extra occasions. In the living-room you will find 
stores of shining pewter-ware, with some silver, and some delft 
earthenware, all set up for show in closets with glass doors. These 
are very comfortable homes, and pleasant, are they not ? 

In the street again, we find that the city is full of trees, which 
make a cool shade. The locust-tree prevails, with its fragrant 
white blossoms, and the birds are singing gayl}^ in the branches. 
At night, the frogs croak loudly, because there are many large 
swamps which are full of frogs. There are a great manj^ wells in 
the cit}^ but the water is bad; therefore the people bring most of 
their water frojn " Fresh-water Pond," out in the country, a mile 
or more from the Battery. You very often meet a water-cart, sell- 
ing water for a penny a gallon, at the doors of the houses. 

There are not many private carriages yet used, but we can get 
an " Italian chaise," a comfortable vehicle Avith two wheels, and 
drive out of town. We go past the fine church with a tall steeple 
called " Trinity," and past King's College, which is a grand new 
college just built. It is a very short drive before we are in the 
broad open country, with cows and sheep feeding all about. At 
night, the herdsman comes, blows his horn loudly, and all the cattle 
follow him back through the streets of the town, and he leaves them 
each at the owner's door till the next morning. When we have 
driven far enough, we can go back through the side streets, which 
are filled with children on their way from school. Although this is 
an English town, you hear almost as much Dutch spoken as Eng- 
lish. The children's names, too, Peter Ryckman, Catharina Van- 
dam, Hans Jacobs, Anthony Jansen, these are not like the names 
you hear in Boston. There are English names, too, of course, be- 
cause for many years the English have been peopling New York, and 
the names of Livingston, Jay, and Murray are heard among those of 
Holland extraction. The names of the streets, however, are largely 
Dutch, and you can almost read the history of the town in the 
names at its street corners. The houses of the rich English resi- 
dents and those of the wealthier Dutch, have stately mahogany fur- 
niture, and stores of silver and china, while their dress is even more 
gorgeous than in the Puritan cities. 

You can see plainly, however, that the earliest settlers of this 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 181 

growing metropolis have impressed their characteristics strongly 
upon it. Even in their amusements and occupations you see this. 
Their chief summer recreation is in forming sailing parties up the 
Hudson, where they go to eat turtle-soup, which is made in great 
perfection there. They have no Thanksgiving Day, but " New 
Year's " they keep with great festivities, and the custom of making 
New Year's calls and presents is celebrated most gayly among the 
Hollanders. 

Oysters have never before been known so plentiful and cheap as in 
New York. They are largely used by the poorest classes, because 
they are so cheap. Trvily, this city seems a goodly one to dwell 
in, does it not ? We feel quite sure it will be one day a large city. 

Albany, up the Hudson, is also growing rapidly, and even more 
than New York is like a town in Holland. But we cannot stop to 
visit it now. We must go on to Philadelphia. We shall go by 
stage-coach through New Jersey, traveling over a pleasant country 
dotted with farms, very green and fertile. Many of the old Swedish 
settlements remain, and their comfortable stone farm-houses are seen, 
overtopped by the large barns and granaries. Orcharels of peaches 
and cherries border the road. We can climb the fences anywhere 
and help ourselves to fruit. The owner will find no fault. Every- 
thing is abundant in this new country, and there are not travelers 
enough to make trespass laws necessary. 

Three days' journey brings us to Philadelphia, and we will go to 
the London Coffee House on High Street and get breakfast. The 
streets are not crooked here, as in Boston. William Penn was very 
careful about the appearance of his new city, and it was laid out in 
broad squares, with streets crossing each other at right angles. 
When the city was first built, they chopped down trees to mark 
where a street was to be cut through. Sometimes it was a Avalnut- 
tree, sometimes a chestnut. " Penn's woods " bore a great variety 
of trees. So the streets were called " Chestnut," " Walnut," 
" Elm," after the stumps which had marked them, and Philadelphia 
streets continue to be named for trees, just as those in New York 
are named for its early settlers. 

Of all the cities of the New World, I think Philadelphia is the 
handsomest. The people, too, how differently they look. There are 
a few dressed in the bright colors which are the fashion, but most 
wear the quiet Quaker colors, — drab, pearl grays, and delicate 
brown. The women, like Jenny Wren, wear plain brown or drab 



182 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

gowns, " and never go too fine." With their large bonnets, which 
shade their eyes, and keep their faces smooth and unwrinkled, 
they look very sweet and peaceful. The Avhite rauslin crossed over 
their breasts is like drifted snow. The men, with broad hats and 
long drab coats, look much as William Penn did eighty years ago. 

The houses, like the owners, are substantial, but quiet and un- 
pretending. There are many brick houses, for this colony is rich 
in clay, and they began very early to practice brick-making. 

The state-house in Philadelphia is an imposing brick building, 
and the citizens are very proud of it. A great bell, the largest 
bell in all the country, has just been put up in the steeple of the 
State-house, whose grand peal is soon to announce to the world 
that the Americans have declared their independence from the rule 
of Great Britain. 

Before we leave Philadelphia, I want to tell you about one of 
the most remarkable men who was ever born in America, and give 
you some idea of his character and good works. This man is 
Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Boston, but when onl}^ a 
youth he came to Philadelphia to make it his home. Wlien he 
first landed there his pocket contained a dollar and a few cents, his 
only capital. Not his only capital either, for he had beside that 
his head and hands, and a thorough knowledge of the printer's 
trade. You have heard, doubtless, how he bought three large rolls 
at the baker's, and walked up the city streets, eating one of them, 
while he carried the others, one under each arm. 

He went to work at once setting type in a printer's office, and in 
a year went to England, from Avhence he returned to Philadelphia, 
to edit a newspaper of his own. He was never so busy with his own 
affairs that he could not interest himself in those of others. He 
started a debating society for the discussion of all the topics of the 
day, in which he induced other young men to take part. He organ- 
ized a public library. He originated the plan for the University of 
Pennsylvania, now a flourishing institution. Everywhere the town 
shows some monument of his intellect and practical energy. Noth- 
ing is too high, or too low, to interest this great man. He has made 
experiments to prove that lightning and electricity are the same 
forces, and has just invented the lightning rod, to diminish the 
dangers of accident. He has also introduced a welcome inmate into 
the parlors of Philadelphia — a new stove, called the " Franklin," 
the best heater yet in use. From lightning-rods and stoves, humble 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 183 

instruments of blessing to man, which he leaves his studies in 
science to produce, he has tuinied his clear head to politics, and is 
now on an embassy to London, intrusted by four colonies with the 
management of their affairs in the mother-country. You will hear 
him often mentioned as this history goes on, and you will hear only 
good of him. That plain house in High Street is his, and his duti- 
ful wife is now fitting and furnisliing it for his return. She writes 
hii,n to bring home from England some new table-cloths, and some 
panes of glass to set in a closet door ; and tells him she shall not 
drive u.p the nails for the pictures till he comes home, because she 
wants him to see that they are just right. So you see this great 
man, who founds libraries and universities, and makes a familiar of 
the lightning, can attend to as small an affair as the driving up of 
picture hooks. 

In all Philadelphia, at this time the handsomest city in these 
colonies, I find nothing so well worth seeing as Benjamin Franklin, 
and since he is gone away, we will take our luggage and pack to 
Virginia. 

If we measure by the growth of Boston or New York, we must 
expect Jamestown in Virginia to be larger than either of these 
cities, since it is several years older. But the colony of Virginia 
has had a different kind of growth from Massachusetts or New 
York. You remember how the settlers scattered about at first, 
selecting their liomes wherever the site pleased them, and cultivat- 
ing large farms of tobacco, which is sent to be sold in England. 
It has not been their custom to build up large towns for commerce 
and manufactures, like Massachusetts and New York, and in jour- 
neying through Virginia you will see here and there a planter's 
house with great, hospitable porch, and wide, open front door, inside 
which you are made heartily welcome, but you will see few of the 
fast growing towns and villages which are scattered all over New 
England. All about the planter's large house are little cabins in 
which swarm negro babies and tlieir mothers. The men 'are out at 
work in the tobacco fields. These two products, tobacco and negro 
slaves, make the wealth of Virginia, and just now her planters are 
very rich, and some of them live like princes. We have seen a good 
many black slaves in Philadelphia, and a few in New England, but 
here in Virginia all the work is done by blacks. These people have 
multiplied exceedingly since the year 1620, when the Dutch traders 
landed twenty Africans in Virginia. Now this colony not only has 



184 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

negroes as many as she can use, but sells them to the other colonies. 
Georgia, which was at first opposed to the introduction of slave labor, 
has now for several years been holding slaves, many of whom she 
imported from Virginia. 

I have told you the Virginia planter lives like a prince. I have a 
picture of one of them, taken about this time. He wears a crimson 
velvet coat embroidered with gold ; silver-gray satin waistcoat richly 
wrought with gold figures ; a green silk sash, white silk stockings, 
green velvet breeches, and diamond shoe-buckles. Round his neck 
he wears a jeweled locket, with a portrait in little of King George 
II. He owns some of the largest tobacco fields in Virginia. His 
sons are sent to England to be educated, and his daughters have 
been presented at court in London. When he is in Virginia he 
rides to Williamsburg, which is the capital and the nearest large 
town, in a great coach with yellow wheels, drawn by six horses. 
About Christmas time they have jolly festivities in his house. He 
invites his neighbors, and they have a grand Christmas dinner, and 
in the evening music and dancing. The young ladies play the 
harpsichord (they do not have pianos, but the harpsichord or the 
spinet makes very good music instead), and the young gentlemen 
play the violin, and there are merry times. 

The Virginia gentleman is also a great sportsman, and hunting 
and fishing are his chief amusements. Nearly all visitors to the col- 
onies think the Virginia planter is most of all to be envied. He 
has a contempt, quite strongly expressed, for the New Englanders. 
He says they are too stingy, and think too much of their money. 
But the fact is, the planter is spending his money too fast. He is 
wasting his soil and putting nothing into it for the tobacco he takes 
out ; and while the New Englander is spending his money in col- 
leges and public schools and manufactories, Virginia is sending hers 
to England to bring over big lumbering coaches with yellow wheels, 
gay dresses, and rich furniture which will wear out and leave noth- 
ing behind. 

There are noble men in the Virginia colony whose names we are 
sure to hear mentioned hereafter. There is George Washington, who 
did such good service in the French war. He has married a rich 
widow, and lives on his great estates at Mount Vernon in Fairfax 
County, on the Potomac River. He is occupied in managing his 
affairs, and spending his leisure time in hunting and fishing, for he is 
an ardent sportsman. There is the stirring young orator, Patrick 



A TOUR IN AMERICA. 



185 



Henry, whose eloquence is the talk of all Virghiia. The two rising 
lawyers, Richard Henry Lee and Peyton Randolph, are known by 
everybod3\ There is another young man not so well known, ]\Ir. 
Thomas Jefferson, now at William and Mary's College in Williams- 
bursf, who is certain to make his mark one of these days. If great 
men can make a community thriving, Virginia is rich in material 
for prosperity. 

The Carolinas and Georgia are rich in tobacco and rice planta- 
tions, and down in the swampy fields where the rice grows, you will 
see bands of black slaves at work. The Carolina planter is not as 
rich as the Virginian, but he is prosperous, and the towns of Charles- 
ton in South Carolina, and Savannah, which good Mr. Oglethorpe 
laid out so carefully, are handsome cities. 

As yet they have no export in the Carolinas which rivals tobacco 
in the riches it brings to the planters, v But twenty years ago a 
young girl of eighteen, named Ehza 
Lucas, was managing a plantation all by 
herself in South Carolina. Her father 
sent her some cotton seeds from the West 
Indies, and she planted them and had a 
good crop. She tried also raising the 
indigo plant, and found that successful, 
and when she married Mr. Pinckney two 
or three years later, she interested him 
in her attempts at planting cotton and 
indigo. Already cotton is an .article of 
growing export from Charleston, and the 
time will come when all other exports 
will sink into nothing besides this king 
of products, and it will rule trade with 
a rod of iron. 

Well, our journey is ended. We have 
made a rapid tour of the king's colonies in North America, and will 
take return ship to London, from whence we came. During this 
year (1760) his majesty King George II. has yielde'd up his crown 
and sceptre, and gone to sleep in the royal tomb at Westminster 
Abbey. His grandson, George III., is just crowned King of Eng- 
land, and as we sail away, guns are fired off from the fort in Charles- 
ton harbor, in honor of the new monarch. From all sides go up 
the cry, " The King is dead. Long live the King ! " Let us see in 
the next chapter how we like this new king. 




Cotton Plant. 




186 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

UPRISING OF THE COLONIES. 

The New King. —Royal Treasurv empty. — Taxation without Representation. — Stirring Scone 
in Boston State-house. — Tlie People and the Stamp Act. — Speech of Patrick Henry.— 
Our Defenders in England. 

The year 1761 beheld a new monarch ascent! the throne of Eng- 
land. He was a young man of twenty years, the grandson of 
George XL, the preceding king. England was just emerging from 
the clouds of her war with France. The war had been long and ex- 
pensive, and the English government wanted 
money very much, so much that they were not 
particular about the means by which they got 
it. 

The young king had not the best of advisers. 
William Pitt, a man of great intellect and elo- 
quence, who had been the secretary of state in 
W-^'^'d'^"' ^^^^ grandfather's reign, did not gain the ear of 
William Pitt the new monarch, and his favorite counselors 

foolishly advised him to tax the American colonies to raise some 
money to put into the royal coffers. 

The American colonies were worn out and tired to death with 
war. They had really done more than half the work of driving the 
French out of Canada. They felt that if ever the "mother-country" 
ought to be proud of her children over here, and tender of them, it 
should be after they had unfurled the English flag above the walls 
of Louisburg, Duquesne, and Quebec. Besides, the American col- 
onies had never been an expense to the crown of England. On the 
contrary, they had paid their own way almost from the first, and 
were really valuable acquisitions to the power of England. So that 
the proposition to tax them without allowing them to have any 
voice in the matter, was not very agreeable, as you can fancy. To 
state the matter in six words, " Thet/ objected to Taxation witliout 
Representation.''^ 

Now do you know just what that means ? " Taxation without 
repi-esentation ? " If not, I shall be obliged to tell you, because it 
is quite necessary you should understand it. 

A " tax" is a sura which must be paid on any article used by the 
2:>eople who are taxed. It may be tea or sugar or tobacco, or any 



UPRISING OF THE COLONIES. 187 

other article imported into a countr}^ and the tax may be five cents, 
or ten cents, or any number of cents a pound. It" it is silk, or any 
fabric for wearing apparel, the tax would be so many cents on a 
yard. All the teas or sugar or silk, or any otlier taxable article, 
must be weighed or measured when it comes into a port, and the 
people pay so much extra on each pound or yard, which goes into 
the coffers of the government. 

When this country is taxed (and we always have some taxed 
articles to furnish money to the government) we send our represent- 
atives to Congress to make laws about the taxes, and choose the 
men whom we believe worthy of trust. These men represent us in 
making laws, and we are willing to pay such taxes as they decide 
are wise and proper. This is taxation ivith representation. 

But the American colonies had no votes in England. They did 
not send any representatives over to the great English Parliament, 
where laws were made regulating taxes and everything else in Eng- 
land. Therefore, when the English minister. Sir Richard Grenville, 
said in effect, " We are now going to pass a law to tax you, and you 
must submit to it," the blood of the colonies boiled fiercely with rage. 
They said, " We will not submit to it. We tax our black African 
slaves, and take their earnings without allowing them to have any 
voice in the matter, because they are our slaves. But we are 7iot 
slaves. You mean to treat us as if we were, but we will not endure 
it. We will never hear taxation without representation.'''' 

Previous to the accession of George III. there had been laws 
passed taxing various kinds of merchandise in the colonies, but 
these laws were generally ignored, aii^l were considered worthless. 
The first step the English crown took towards this tyranny they 
were planning was to send over here legal documents called " Writs 
of Assistance." These writs commanded the king's officers to 
search anywhere, in a man's store or his house, for articles taxed 
under the old laws, and seize upon it, in the king's name. One old 
tax which had not been enforced was on sugar and molasses. It was 
proposed to put that in force, and make the jDeople pay it. The 
worst feature of the writs of assistance was, that the king's officers 
were authorized to oblige the colonial sheriffs and town officers to 
assist in breaking into a man's house, and search for his taxable 
goods. 

There was a stirring scene in the old Boston state-house in Feb- 
ruary, 1761. The council chamber was filled to overflowing. Five 



188 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

judges, with Governor Hutchinson, the chief-justice of ]Massachu- 
setts, at their head, were seated in state, grandly dressed in long 
flowing robes of scarlet broadcloth, with great wigs on their heads, 
which made them look as big as bushel baskets. At a long table 
covered with papers and law books, sat all the lawyers of Middlesex 
County in their black gowns and wigs. At each end of the room 
was a picture in a splendid gilt frame, of the two sovereigns. Kings 
Charles 11. and James II. The scene was like a grand picture itself, 
and there were heads there better worth putting on canvass, than 
the reckless Charles II. and his contemptible brother James. 

This assembly was gathered to hear an argument from a young 
Massachusetts lawyer, James Otis, against the writs of assistance. 

It was a speech that fired every American 
who heard it, and sent him away with 
" Liberty " ringing in his ears. John 
Adams, afterwards a president of the 
United States, heard Otis speak, and de- 
clared " American independence was then 
and there born." It was a speech that 
silenced the king's officers. They dared 
not mention "writs of assistance" that 
day. I think Governor Hutchinson, who 
James Otis ^^.^^ ,^j^ Americau born, must have writhed 

in his scarlet gown, as he sat under the blazing eLjquence of this 
glorious orator. 

It Avould be a long story, and tiresome, if I followed out every 
act by which the English attempted to force the colonies to accept 
their will as law. I shall only mention the most notable acts, the 
first of which is called the ^^ Stamp Act." This was a taxed paper, 
and bore a royal stamp. The colonies were ordered to use it on all 
business or legal contracts. Nothing would be legal, not even a 
marriage ceremony, if the contract were not on stamped paper. 

The people all over the country were very angry when this 
stamped paper was sent here. Of all of them Boston was a little 
the worst. The Boston people would not buy the paper. They 
would not get married, not buy or sell anything, or do any business 
which obliged them to use it. They made a great figure of straw 
dressed up in a red coat to look like Mr. Oliver, the royal officer 
who had the stamped paper to sell, and hung the figure on a tree on 
Boston Common, which is since called " The old Liberty Tree." 




UPRISING OF THE COLONIES. 



189 



They broke into Governor Hutchinson's house, and made great 
havoc there, burning his books and papers. I am sorry for that, 
for Governor Hutchinson was a man of ability, who wrote a very 
good liistory of the colonies, and he lost there many valuable papers 
which would be interesting now for us to read. 

In New Hampshire, when the news of the passage of the stamp 
act was made public, the bells were tolled, and the people summoned 
to a funeral. A coffin with the inscription, " Liberty — died 1765," 
was paraded through the streets. It was carried to the grave, guns 
were fired over it, and a funeral oration spoken. Just as they were 
about to bury it, it was declared that there were still signs of life ; 
the coffin was again carried through the streets with " Liberty alive 
again," inscribed upon it. These things show the spirit of the peo- 
ple, and that they had no idea of burying their liberties without a 
struggle. 

In New York city they hung an effigy of the governor, burned 
up his carriage, the r~ 
only piece of his 
property they could 
lay hold of, and be- 
haved as unreason- 
ably as mobs usu- 
ally do. All over 
the colonies a so- 
ciety called " Sons 
of Liberty " was 
formed by the men 
who meant to fight 
rather than yield. 

In Virginia they 
held a meeting 
which was a d - 
dressed by Patrick 
Henry, a spirited 
young Virginian. 
He spoke so boldly 
for freedom that 
the older men were ^^^"^^ ^^'"^■ 

alarmed. When he introduced some resolutions claiming that the 
American colonists were free-born Englishmen, and to tax them 




190 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



without their consent was tyranny, there was a terrible struggle 
over their passage. During the debate Patrick Henry rose. 

" CjBsar had his Brutus," he cried, " Charles the First his Crom- 
well, and George the Third" — 

Here all the timid listeners who thought this sounded like a 
threat against the king's life, began to shout, " Treason ! Treason ! " 

Patrick Henry waited till they were quiet, and then he ended 
impressively, " and George the Third — may profit by their exam- 
ple. If that be treason, make the most of it." 




Patrick Henry before the Assembly. 

Benjamin Franklin had been sent to England from Philadelphia, 
to use his influence against taxation. He found a strong party on 
his side in England. William Pitt, the great English statesman ; 
Colonel Barre, who had fought here in the French wars ; Edmund 
Burke, the great jurist and orator ; the lord mayor, and many of 
the citizens of London, all sympathized with the colonies. Pitt 
made a speech in which he said, "We are told America is obstinate ; 
America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has re- 
sisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all feelings of liberty, 
as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instru- 
ments to make slaves of all the rest." 

When Mr. Charles Townsend asked in the English parliament, 
" Will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished 
by our indulgence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge their 



MORE OPPRESSION. 



191 



mite to relieve us from the lieavj^ weight of the burden which we 
lie under ? " Colonel Barre started to his feet and said : — 

''■ They planted hy your care! Your oppression planted them in 
America. They fled from tyranny to a then uncultivated and in- 
hospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the 
hardsliips to which human beings are liable. 

"They nourished by your indulgence ! They grew up by your 
neglect of them. 

" They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up arms 
in your defense, have exerted their -s^lor for the defense of a coun- 
try whose frontier was drenched with blood, while its interior 
yielded its little savings to your emolument. And believe me, re- 
member that I this day told you, the same spirit of freedom that 
actuated that people at first, will accompany them still." 

Hurrah for Pitt and Colonel Barre ! Next fourth of July re- 
member to give them three extra cheers. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

MORE OPPRESSION. 

Daughters of Liberty. — Redcoats in Boston. — Boston Massacre. — Boy Rebels. — Tax on 
Tea. — First Continental Congress. — Tlie Men who attended it. — Speech of William 
Pitt. — Whigs and Tories. — The Patriotic Barber. — Yankee Doodle. 

The women were not less ardent and patriotic than the men. As 
the men had formed themselves into com- 
panies called Sons of Liberty, they also 
formed an organization called " Daughters 
of Liberty," and pledged themselves not to 
buy any goods imported from England. 
They formed " spinning societies " to make 
their own cotton and linen, and they wove 
cloth for their fathers, husbands, and sons 
to wear. The ladies met together and had 
matches to see who could spin fastest. 
One party of young girls met at. the house 
of their minister, in Boston, to spend the 
aft€y:'noon in a spinning match, and when 
they left, presented the minister with two 
hundred and thirty skeins of yarn, the 
fruit of their afternoon's labor. I can as- 




lWDEPENDENCEiOF'ou«C0UNTRt[ 



sure you these were stirring times. 



192 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY 



In 1766 England repealed the stamp act. But before the rejoic- 
ing was over in America, she began again her encroachments on our 
liberty. Sir Richard Grenville was out of office, and Charles 
Townshend, who succeeded him, was determined the colonies should 
submit. By this time England began really to care more about 
making the colonies submit than she cared for the tax. It began 
now to be a trial to see which should give in. 

The thing which most outraged Boston, about this time, was the 
fact that a large detachment of red-coated British soldiers were sent 
there and quartered for a time in Faneuil Hall. That was too 
much to bear. They hated the soldiers, and it was a double 
offense to put them in Faneuil Hall, where indignation meetings 
about the stamp act had been held. Already Faneuil Hall was- 
called fondly " The Cradle of Liberty." 




^f/^^O 



Faneu I Ha I 



The soldiers were hooted at and scouted at by the very boys in 
the streets. I know they did not have a pleasant life of it. At 
length the hatred broke out in an open quarrel, and three citizens of 
Boston were killed by the soldiers. This was called the " Boston 
Massacre," and the public rage was hot against the soldiers. 

Even the children shared the general feeling, and were as patri- 
otic as their fathers and mothers. One winter's day a party of boys 



MORE OPPRESSION. 193 

were building a snow fort on Bostoii Common. Some idle soldiers 
standing about, battered it down. As the boj^s had suffered fre- 
quent annoyance from the soldiers, they determined to go in a body 
to General Gage (who had been sent over to take Governor Hutchin- 
son's place), and complain of the way in which they had been treated. 
After they had laid their wrongs before the general, he said impa- 
tiently, " Have your fathers been teaching you rebellion and sent 
you here to show it ? " 

" Nobody sent us, sir," answered the l)oy who led the others. 
'^ But your soldiers have insulted us ; thrown down our forts ; called 
us young rebels. We will bear it no more." 

Gage laughingly promised them redress, and sent them away tri- 
umphant. Then he said to an officer beside him, — 

" Even the children here draw in a love of liberty in the air they 
breathe.'" 

In 1773 a tax on tea was passed by England. The people were 
very fond of tea, and a large quantity was annually used by the 
colonies. All over New England tea-drinkings were in fashion, 
where the women met to knit and sew, and ended with a social cup 
of tea. " They will rather pay a small sum than give up their 
beloved beverage," argued the British statesmen. 

The British statesmen reckoned without their host. Every patri- 
otic woman in America was willing to diink milk and water to the 
end of her days rather than give in. They steeped all kinds of herbs, 
made pennyroj^al, catnip, and sage tea, and pretended it tasted very 
good indeed, but not an ounce of real Chinese tea would any loyal 
woman use. There were many songs written about this odious tea 
tax. Here is a verse which appeared in one of the newspapers, — 

" O Boston wives and maids, draw near and see 
Our delit-ate Soushono- and Ilyson tea; 
Buy it, my clinrming girls, fair, black, or brown, 
If not, we '11 out your throats and burn your town." 

In Boston, they heard that a cargo of tea was to be landed. 
Night after night the liberty-loving citizens walked up and down 
the wharf watching for the coming of the ship, to prevent her from 
landing her cargo. When a ship-load finally got into the harbor, a 
party of men disguised like Indians, in war-paint and feathers, went 
on board ship and pitclied every chest of it into the water, where it 
quickly sank to the bottom. There it rotted under the waves, 
although half the women in Boston would have eiven almost anv- 



194 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

thing for a cup of that very tea, if they could have had it without 
yielding to tyranny. 

The English merchants made their tea so cheap that it could have 
been bought for less money with the tax than it had been sold pre- 
viously without it. That made no difference. It was not two or 
fliree cents a pound on tea. It was the immortal principle. 
" Down wdth tyranny I Hurrah for liberty ! ' 

The English blood was up in England as well as in America. 
Parliament was held in London, and they talked angrily there about 
the " unwarrantable practices in America," and especially the "out- 
rageous behavior of Boston." 

Then they passed the " Boston Port Bill," shutting up the port 
of Boston, so that no commerce could come there, and moving the 
custom-house to Salem. They also passed a law taking all govern- 
ment authority from the colonies, and giving it entirely to the 
crown, and ordered that all persons committing murder should be 
brought over to England to be tried. That w^as to protect the sol- 
diers who might kill a rebellious colonist occasionally. 

This was worse and worse, and public discontent ^vaxed stronger 
and stronger. The thirteen colonies met in tlieir assemblies, and 
appointed delegates to meet in Philadelphia and talk the matter 
over. This convention is known as the " First Continental Con- 
gress.''^ It is the first body representing the colonies that ever met 
on the American continent. It was the germ from which the 
United States grew up. There were fifty-two members in all, and 
I believe a nobler assembly never met together than this body of 
men who sat in the old state-house in Philadelphia, to deliberate 
calmly how the liberties of a people should be preserved. 

There was the fiery young orator, Patrick Henry, whose words 
were like lightning to strike tyranny dumb. There were the 
'Adamses of Massachusetts : John Adams, now only a promising 
young lawyer, but afterwards to be rewarded with the highest hon- 
ors his country could bestow on him ; Samuel Adams, whose grand 
utterances for freedom still ring through the years like bugle-notes. 
There w^as George Washington, the hero of many dangerous battles, 
as ready now to fight for American independence, as he had fought 
for English conquest ; Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, of whom it is 
praise enough to say that he was worthy to sit beside George Wash- 
ington and Patrick Henry ; Roger Sherman of Connecticut, who had 
risen from the shoemaker's to the judge's bench; John Jay of New 



MORE OPPRESSION. 



196 



York, the blood of the French Huguenots in his veins, crying out 
against submission to tyrants ; and Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Isl- 
and, almost seventy years old, yet as much in love with liberty as 
the youngest man among them. 




Samuel Adams. 
[From Copley's portrait in Faneuil Uall ] 

Other noble names were there, and every man of them deserves 
to be crowned with immortal honor. For remember, that to meet 
thus meant danger in every form. If they decided to strike the 
blow for liberty and were unsuccessful, their names would be dishon- 
ored as traitors, their families reduced to poverty, their heads would 
perhaps fall by the hand of the common executioner. It was no 
ordinary bravery that inspired these men. It was a higher courage 
than that which upholds the soldier in the excitement of battle^ 
when the shots are falling round him. It was the calm, steadfast 
courage of reason and conscience. 



196 STOKV OF OUR COUNTRY. 

One man slioukl have been there wliose name does not appear. 
You have not forgotten James Otis, whose voice had kindled the 
first flame of this agitation wlien he spoke in Boston against " Writs 
of Assistance." He would have been of this noble company, but 
five years before he had met one of the tax-officers in a coffee-house 
in Boston, and a dispute arose, in which the officer struck him such 
a blow on the head that he was severely injured. At the time of 
this Congress he was hopelessly insane from the effects of this in- 
jury and thus America lost one of her ablest counselors at a time 
when she needed him so much. He lived to the last year of the 
war of the Revolution and was killed by lightning as he stood in the 
door of his house. 

This Continental Congress passed resolutions approving the re- 
sistance of the colonies to the unjust acts of England, and remon- 
strating with the mother-country, respectfully yet firmly, against her 
course. This remonstrance contained these words : " If neither 
the voice of justice, the dictates of law, the principles of the con- 
stitution, nor the dictates of humanity, can restrain your hands from 
shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell 
you that we tvill never submit to he hewers of ivood, or drawers of 
water for any ministry, or nation in this world.'' 

When William Pitt read this address, he said to Parliament, 

"You will be powerless either to convince or enslave America 

You may, no doubt, destroy their cities ; you may cut them oft" 
from the superfluities, perhaps the conveniences of life ; but they 
will still despise your power, for they have still remaining their for- 
ests., and their liberty.'' 

It was plain enough that the struggle was close at hand. The 
fact is the people here had been getting ready to be a free nation 
ever since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. If England 
had not passed the stamp act, or the port bill, it would have 
turned out the same in the end. Freedom was in the air of the 
New World, and England could no more have hoped to hold these 
growing colonies as vassals, than she could have dannned up the 
Falls of Niagara to run her saw-mills. 

Now the colonies began to call out their citizens to form companies 
of militia, and practice military drill. Old muskets that had figured 
in Indian wars were brought out, and cleaned and polished ; gun- 
powder and bullets were hoarded up ; women spun yarn, knit 
heavy stockings, and wove good substantial cloth to make clothes 



MOUK OPPKESSIOX. 197 

for the men. There were iiumy tears shed, and many solemn 
prayers sent to Heaven ; but in the hearts of the people there was 
but one thouglit and one hope, — that was for Freedom. 

Do not think, however, that everybody was on one side. There 
were a great many people in New England, Virginia, New York, 
and the Carolinas, who were bitter against the action of the Conti- 
nental Congress. They would give up to the king at any cost, and 
they denounced the rest as " traitors " and " rebels." These people 
who stood for the king and his government were called " Tories," 
or royalists, and the other party " Whigs," or rebels. These names, 
Tory and Whig, were borrowed from English politics. ^ Many of 
the American newspapers were Tory, and remained so until the 
cause of the revolutionists became strong, then they turned about 
and abused the English as much as any one. There were a good 
many Tories persecuted for their allegiance to tlie king. Some of 
them moved to Canada ; some of them kept silent and took as little 
part as they could ; and some of those who spoke their mind freely, 
were tarred and feathered, and ridden on rails, and treated in the 
unjust and foolish manner in which excited mobs will treat those 
who disagree Avitli them. 

The lines between Tories and Whigs were closely drawn at the 
beginning of the year 1765. The Americans demanded to know 
those who were going to stand for liberty, and in Boston and else- 
where those who stood for the king did not have a very pleasant 
time of it. A good deal of tarring and feathering was done about 
this time, and many Tories got broken heads and bloody noses for 
speaking up for the king. A patriotic barber in Boston was quietly 
shaving a customer, and had just got half his face shaved, when he 
found that he was a Tory. He threw down his razor, and ordered 
him out of his shop. The poor Tory with his face all lathered, one 
side clean shaven, " like a field new reaped at harvest time," and 
the other side with a bristling beard, was forced to go hunting 
tb.rough the streets of Boston for a, barber who was devoted to 
tlie cause of George HI. 

The Americans opposed to the king and his measures were known 
as Patriots, Whigs, Continentals, and lastly as Yankees, a term 
\Vhich the English soldiers took up in derision. The English soldiery 

1 Tory was from an Irish word signifying a "savage," Init had come to mean an adiierent 
of,the khig and his measures. Whig came from a Scotch word, meaning a " drover," and 
finally came to mean those who believed that government was not to enslave men, but to serve 
them. It was first applied to a party of soldiers in Cromwell's time, who came from Scotland. 



198 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and their sympathizers in America, were called Tories, Royalists, 
Britishers, and Regulars, — the last name being applied to their 
troops to distinguish them from the provincial or American militia. 

The English bands belonging to the regular troops took great de- 
light in playing an air called " Yankee Doodle." It was played in 
derision of the Yankees, but has since become our most popular 
national tune. The patriots accepted the term Yankees, as one of 
honor rather than contempt, and one of the newspapers of that 
time says, " It is a name which we hope will soon be equal to that 
of a Roman, or an ANCIE^'T Englishman." 

They soon had other work than calling names, knocking their 
antagonists down, or tarring and feathering them. " The war has 
already begun. The next breeze will bring to our ears the clash of 
resounding arms." The smoke arises from the first battle in the 
War. of the Revolution. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 

Hidden Stores of Gunpowdei- and Bullets. — Paul Revere's Ride. —Midnight March. —Scene 
at Lexington Meetinghouse. — First Blood shed. — Destruction of Stores. — The Retreat 
and Pursuit. — Lord I'ercy at Charlestown. — " Yankee Doodle " and " Clievy Cliase." 

In the spring of 1775 Governor Gage heard constant rumors of 
military stores, gunpowder, bullets, guns, and muskets, secretly col- 
lected and hidden in secure places by the Americans, till there 
should be use for them. He also heard accounts of companies 
formins in all the towns and villages about Boston, for military 
drill. These were the " minute-men," so called because they were 
to be ready on a minute's notice, to take their muskets and hurry to 
the field. 

It ^vas difficult for Gage to find just where these stores of powder 
and ammunition were hidden ; still as there w^ere Tories in every 
town it was impossible to keep all their hiding-places secret. In 
April Gage was told that out in the town of Concord the Yankees 
had stores secreted. At ten o'clock on the evening of April 18, 
the patriot watchmen who were posted at all the landing-places in 
Boston, saw a stirring among the British troops, and a company of 
them embarking in boats, at the lower end of Boston Common. 



BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 199 

In less than half an hour, two mounted horsemen were sent off 
by the patriots to warn the country all around to be on their guard. 
One of these messenii-ers was named Paul Revere. He was an en- 
graver by trade, and five years before, at the time of the Boston 
Massacre, he had made a picture of the troops firing on the citizens, 
which plainly showed that he was a loyal American. Now he 
started off at full gallop over Middlesex County, to rouse up the 
people, and tell the minute-men to be on the alert. Once he was 
stopped on his way, but after being examined wsis allowed to go on. 
Longfellow has told the whole story of Paul Revere's ride so much 
better than I can, that I will put in here his account of it. See if 
you do not hear the sound of those swift hoofs in our poet's lines. 

PAUL REVERE'S RIDE. 

Listen, my children, and you siiall hear 

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. 

On the eighteenth of April in 'Seventy-five ; 

Hardly a man is now alive 

Who remembers that famous day and jear. 

He said to his friend, " If the British march 

By land or sea irqm the town to-night, 

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch 

Of the North Church tower as a signal light, — 

One if by land, and two if by sea, 

And I on the opposite shore will be, 

Ready to ride and spread the alarm 

Through eveiy Middlesex village and farm. 

For the country-folk to be up and arm. 

Then he said " Good-night ! " and with muffled oar 

Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, 

Just as the moon rose over the bay, 

Where swinging wide at her moorings lay 

The Somerset, British man-of-war ; 

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 

Across the moon like a prison bar, 

And a huge black hulk that was magnifit'd 

By its own reflection in the tide. 

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, 
Wanders and watches with eager ears. 
Till in the silence around him he hears 
The muster of men at the barrack door. 



200 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, 
And the measured tread of the grenadiers 
Marching down to their boats on the shore. 

Then he cUmbed the tower oi the old North Church 

By the wooden stairs, witli stealthy tread, 

To the belfry chamber over-head, 

And startled the pigeons from their perch, 

On the sombre rafters, that around him made 

Masses and moving shapes of shade, — 

By the trembling ladder, steep and tall. 

To the highest window in the wall. 

Where he paused to listen and look down 

A moment on the roofs of the town 

And the moonlight flowing over all. 

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 
Booted and spurred with a heavy stride. 
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 
Now he patted his horse's side. 
Now gazed at the landscape far and near, 
Then impetuous, stam2;)ed the earth, 
And turned, and tightened his saddle girth, 
But mostly lie watched Avith eager search 
The belfry tower of the old North Church 
As it rose above the graves on the hill, 
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. 
And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry's height 
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light ! 
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, 
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 
A second lamp in the Ijelfry burns — 

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark. 

And beneath, from the j^ebljles, in passing a spark 

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet : 

That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light 

The fate of a nation was riding that night ; 

And the spark, struck oyt by that steed in his flight, 

Kindled the land into flame with its heat. 

In the mean time the troops had crossed Charles River, and 
marched in dead silence down to Lexington, six miles from Con- 
cord. Not a man was allowed to speak. The officers uttered their 
commands in whispers as they rode along the lines, and only the 






.^'^V 





Paul Revere's Ride. 



BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 208 

thud ! thud ! of their footsteps was heard, on the quiet country road. 
They passed many a farm-house where the inmates lay dreaming 
of Uberty, — so silently that they were not Avakened from their 
dreams. 

When they reached Lexington, the sun was just rising, and threw 
the long shadow of Lexington meeting-house over the grass. Close 
by the meeting-house, talking earnestly, were a group of less than a 
hundred men. These were minute-men, with muskets in hand. 
When they saw the red coats of the soldiers glittering in the morn- 
ing sun, they began to disperse. Up rode Major Pitcairn, who was 
at the head of the troops, shouting fiercely, "• Disperse, you rebels ! 
Throw down your arms, and disperse ! " 

The troops hurrahed ; an officer discharged his pistol, and then 
the soldiery fired among the provincials. The minute-men had 
been instructed not to fire unless they were first fired upon by the 
British. They now promptly returned fire, wounding three of the 
soldiers. This was answered by a fierce volley from the British, un- 
der which the Americans began a retreat, and the troops marched on 
unmolested to Concord, leaving them to pick vip their dead, laugh- 
ing, meanwhile, at the Yankees, who, they said, needed onl}^ the 
first smell of gunpowder to make them run. 

This was the first blood shed in the coming war. There, on the 
tender, budding grass at Lexington, under the shining morning sun, 
near the shadow of the meeting-house, lay eight dead men, — the 
first victims in the great cause of liberty in America. 

On went the troops to Concord, dividing there into two detach- 
ments which went straight to the two points where stores were hid- 
den, — so straight that it was said afterwards each band had an 
American pilot, who knew more of the secrets of his countrymen 
than the British had been able to learn. There was a Boston bar- 
ber (not our loyal barber, but a Tory), and a tailor, seen among the 
troops in soldiers' clothes, arid bad as they hated the soldiers, the 
Americans hated worse these " Judases," who would betray their 
own fellow-countrymen. 

The troops took the guns and powder, spiked the cannon, set fire 
to the gun-carriages, and took one hundred barrels of flour, half of 
which they tumbled into the river. Going onward they found the 
minute-men mustered on a bridge to the north, one hundred and 
fifty strong. They fired and killed two of them, and then a volley 
blazed back from the American lines. The British troops fell back 



204 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

before it. T\\o Americans pursued, and almost in a twinkling back 
went the i-ed-eoats pell-mell, in retreat toward Lexington, followed 
by the minute-men. On they went in swift rietreat. From barns, 
fences, and trees, all along the road, rang the quick crack of mus- 
kets picking off a British soldier. Every bush seemed to hold a 
patriot, and when the British ran panting into Lexington, where 
I.,ord Percy had been sent from Boston to join them with some 
fresh troops, they had left two hundred and ninety-three men, dead 
and dying, on the road from thence to Concord. Percy formed 
a hollow square to surround the fugitives, and, panting with fatigue 
and thirst, with their tongues hanging from their mouths like dogs, 
the soldiery threw themselves down upon the ground exhausted and 
beaten, with no breath left even to laugh at Yankees. When one 
could speak, he said frankly, " They fought like bears, and I would 
as soon storin hell, as fight tJiem again." 

Percy led them back to Boston, but all the way the militia fired 
from every place where a man and a musket could be hidden. In 
the morning Lord Percy had marched gayly out of Boston, his band 
playing "• Yankee Doodle " in derision. The evening saw him com- 
ing slowly into Charlestown, tired out, his redcoats gray with mud 
and dust. " Halloa," cried a young rebel from behind a safe corner, 
as he watched him setting out that morning, " You play ' Yankee 
Doodle ' now, but before long you will play ' Chevy Cliase.' " ^ It had 
been a chase, indeed. And thus ended the battle of Lexington. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

TICONDEROGA AND BUNKER HILL. 

Congress meets again. — George Washington made Commander of the Armies. — Green 
Mountain Boys. — Ethan Allen takes Ticonderoga and Crown Point. — Oglethorpe refuses 
to fight the Americans. — Noble Words of Samuel Adams. — Americans on Bunker Hill. — 
liattle of Bunker Hill. — The Monument there. 

May 10, 1755, the Continental Congress met again in Philadel- 
phia. They had a new man in their ranks : Thomas Jefferson, 
whom we heard of in Virginia before the war. 

This time Congress took stronger measures, and formed a "Federal 
Union," taking a pledge that the colonies would stand by each other 

1 A patriotic newspaper of the time gives this story of the boy's jest as an authentic one. 
I hope you all know the heroic old battle of Chevj' Chase, in wiiicli one of this very Lord 
rcri'v's ancestors fiffures. 



TICONDEROGA AND BUNKER HILL. 



205 



in the struggle that was coming, aiul that all should be, as one. 
They did not give up remonstrating with the king yet, but sent 
him an eloquent appeal, which he took no notice of except by call- 
ing them rebels. 

They talked over plans for raising an army, for collecting stores, 
and fortifying their weak places. Their most memorable act was 
the appointment of a commander-in-chief of the colonial armies. 

Mr. Johnson of Maryland rose and nominated for commander, 
Creorge WasJmigton of Virginia^ and it was unanimously approved. 
You have already heard something of Washington ; of his service 
in the French and Indian wars, and his loyalty to his country 
when these new troubles had arisen. Ever since the French wars, 
until he was called to join the Continental Congress, he had lived 
quietly down in Virginia, working hard in the care of his large plan- 
tation, and all his great family of slaves, wliich numbered several 
hundred. He had lived a simple life, although he was a rich man, 
and his chief amusement had been long horse-back rides, or hunting 
excursions, of whicli he was very fond. Tliere was no show nor 
pretense about liim, but 
everybody who knew 
him, knew that here was 
an honest, brave, clear- 
headed gentleman, loyal 
to the core, a good sol- 
dier, and the fittest man 
whom they could select 
to lead the provincial 
army. 

When his appoint- 
ment was confirmed, he 
rose and thanked Con- 
g r e s s in a m a n 1 y , 
straightforward speech. 
He told them he very 
much feared he was not 
equal to the high trust 
they had given him, but 
he would do his best in 
the service of liis coun- ^^°'^^ Washington. 

try. And he told them he should accept no money for his services, 




206 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



beyond the bare expenses he incurred, and those, he doubted not, 
they would be able to discharge. 

The picture of this Virginia gentleman, the soldier- farmer, stand- 
ing with his tall figure in the niidst of this listening Congress, is a 
picture quite as grand as any gallery of Roman heroes furnishes. 

Before Congress adjourned stirring news reached them. It would 
have reached them long before, if news could travel as fast then as 

now. This news came 
slowly, even for those 
days. England had re- 
fused to carr}^ the mails 
in her rebellious prov- 
inces, or perhaps it 
would be more correct 
to say the Americans re- 
fused to use British let- 
ter-carriers. Benjamin 
Franklin had just been 
made general-postmas- 
ter by Continental Con- 
gress, and carrying news 
was slower business than 
ever, in the change of 
affairs. Spite of all ob- 
stacles, however, news 
did reach Philadelphia 
that the forts Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga, 
famous in the French 
war, had been taken by 
the Americans on the 
10th of May, the very day Congress assembled. Let me tell you how 
this happened. 

Up among the mountains in what is now the State of Vermont, 
companies of brave fellows were formed, who called themselves 
" Green Mountain Boys." The foremost leader among them was 
Colonel Ethan Allen, a man of great energy and resolution. To 
him was intrusted the attack upon Ticonderoga. Allen's men were 
joined by another company under Colonel Benedict Arnold, a vol- 
unteer from New Haven, Connecticut, who had lately enlisted in 




TICONDEROGA AND BUNKER HILL. 207 

the war. Tliey had some trouble about which should command, 
but Arnold finally gave up, and Allen marched on to Fort Ticon- 
deroga. Their coming was so unexpected, and the force in the gar- 
rison was so small, that Ethan Allen got inside the fort with a 
party, rushed up-stairs to where the governor was asleep in his bed, 
ignorant of the attack, and waked him up with a tremendous pound- 
ing on his door. 

'' Who 's there," asked the sleepy governor, " and what do you 
want? " 

" I come to demand the instant surrender of this fort," answered 
Allen. 

" By whose authority ? " asked the astonished governor, jumping 
up and beginning to dress. 

" I demand it in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Conti- 
nental Congress," thundered Allen. Surprised in this manner, with 
no time to plan resistance, the governor could do no better than yield 
the fort. Crown Point also surrendered peaceably, and thus two 
valuable posts were in the hands of the patriots. The best of it was 
that they found a good supply of powder and ball, guns and cannon, 
in the fort, which was a great treasure to the Americans, I do not 
know whether they could have fought through their first campaign 
if it had not been for this good fortune. 

All this time the King of England and his counselors were chaf- 
ing and fretting at their powerlessness to argue the colonies into 
submission. They had fully decided that America was an unruly 
child who must be made to obey. They had decided on sending 
more generals and further troops to the colonies. General James 
Oglethorpe was the oldest general in rank, and they offered the com- 
mand to him. But he refused it. All honor to him for that. If 
he had come over here to America, to force taxation on the people, 
after all his noble work in the colony of Georgia, I fear we should 
have lost faith in him. 

They sent over instead, Generals Howe, Burgoyne, and Henry 
Clinton, who came prepared to let slip the dogs of war at the very 
throats of the colonies. As soon as they got over. General Gage, 
who had been trembling in his shoes at the way matters looked, 
began to feel brave again. He issued a proclamation, saying, if the 
colonists would now lay down their arms and say they were sorry, 
they might be forgiven, and taken into royal favor again, — all but 
John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Those two men should be 

14 



208 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



hanged if anybody could lay hold of them. Johia Hancock had 
been president of the Massachusetts Assembly, and made himself 
odious in that way. As to Samuel Adams, he was the man best 
hated by the Tories, of any rebel in America. He was eloquent, and 
he always used his voice for liberty. He was poor, and no money 
could buy him off from speaking his mind. No matter how other 
men wavered, he stood always firm. General Gage complained, 
" Such is the dogged obstinacy of this man, he cannot be conciliated 
by any offices or any gifts." 





^i^x^^<^ 




He spurned both British offices and money, and he said, — 

" I will oppose this tyranny at the threshold, though the fabric of 
liberty fall and I perish in its ruins.'^ 

I do not wonder that General Gage left him out of his pardon 
proclamation. One such man was enough to infect a whole state 
with a desire for freedom. 

Howe landed in Boston, and began to form plans for his cam- 



TICONDEROGA AND BUNKER HILL. 209 

paifii. He was the brother of that brave young Howe who fell, 
fighting, at Ticonderoga in the French war. If he were half as good 
a soldier, the Americans had reason to fear his coming. 

The evening of the 16th of June, a party of Americans were com- 
manded to go over to CharlestoAAni and fortify Bunker Hill. It 
was rumored that Governor Gage was going to take the hill and 
plant cannon there, and the patriots determined to be ahead of him. 
Under cover of the dark, the Americans climbed the hill, and began 
to work at throwing intrenchments of earth on its top. They made 
a mistake, however, and took Breed's Hill, instead of Bm.ker, the 
former being a quarter of a mile nearer Boston. 

When the British got up in the morning of the 17th of June, and 
looked out over the river, there were the Americans, Avith pickaxes 
and spades, working away like so many ants on an ant-hill, with a 
great breastwork of earth piled up in front of them. They liurried 
to get their cannon in readiness, and from Copp's Hill, in the north 
of Boston, they poured a rain of balls on Breed's Hill, while from 
their ships in the harbor they raked the embankment from another 
point. But they could do no harm in this way, so well were the 
Americans protected. 

By noon they concluded they must make a more decided attack. 
Howe sent 3,000 men over the river, to go up the hill, and drive the 
Americans from their post. They went over in boats, and the 
Americans, who could see every movement, watched their coming. 
Other eyes watched too. The roofs of Boston were covered with 
people looking on. Many a woman, whose husband or son was 
crouching down behind that breastwork of earth, waiting the 
enemy's approach, looked eagerly over the river, and watched with 
fast beating heart every motion of the two armies. It was a terrible 
sight to gaze on, when your own heart's blood might flow in the 
coming battle. 

Up the hill went tlie British soldiers, firing every moment as 
they climbed. At the top waited fifteen hundred men, crouched be- 
hind the embankment, silent as death. They had no bullets and 
powder to waste, till the British were close at hand. 

" Aim low, boys," whispered Colonel Prescott, the patriot com- 
mander, " fire at their waistbands, and wait till you see the whites 
of their eyes. Waste no powder." 

When the redcoats were almost up the hill, their plumes nearly 
level with its crest, Bang ! bang ! went the fifteen hundred muskets 



210 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



at once, and down went scores of brave Britishers, cut down as the 
scythe cuts the waving grain. At this moment, great vokimes of 
flame and smoke rose from Charlestown in eight or ten phices at 
once. It had been set on fire by the soldiers as they marched 
through the town. 

The British fell back at the first fire, then they rallied again, and 
the Americans sent another volley among them. A second time 
they fell back in dismay. This time they waited long before renew- 
ing the attack, and hope beat high in the breasts of the men behind 




Joseph Warren. 



the intrenchment. But the third time the British pressed on more 
firmly ; they scaled the intrenchment ; the Americans, many of 
them without powder, tried to beat them back with clubbed muskets, 



TIC()NDEK()(iA AND BUNKER HILL. 



211 



and volleys of stones caught up from the redoubt ; but their last 
resistance was in vain, the British had gained the summit, and the 
Americans, beaten backwards, fled down the hill, and retreated be- 
yond Charlestown Neck. The last man to leave the field was 
Joseph Warren, one of the bravest and noblest of all who had 
gathered there that day. As he turned to follow his retreating com- 
panions, he was shot through the head and killed instantly. The 
battle had lasted two hours, and when the day ended, 1,100 men 
from the British ranks, 450 men from the Americans, were found to 
be lost in the encounter. 

To-day, a grand monument rises from the summit where Warren 
fell, and on the grass-covered terraces which crown the hill, there 




Plan of Bunker Hill. 



are no other signs of battle ; hundreds of tall-masted ships crowd 
Boston harbor, where the British ships then rode at anchor ; on the 
ruins of Charlestown, that day burnt to the ground, a thickly built 
city stands ; on the summit of Copp's Hill, where the English 
planted their cannon, is an old cemetery with its mouldering grave- 
stones. There, in the midst of the great city, sleep many of the fore- 
fathers of the old town. There, where some of my ancestors sleep, 
and very likely some of yours, the sunshine falls pleasantly on the 
crumbling old stones and the neglected paths overgrown with grass 
and burdocks. It is a century since these places resounded with the 



212 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

thunder of British cannon, and no traces of the struggle are left 
there. Happily, our good mother Earth bears no scars from the 
battles fought on her bosom, but covers them quickly up with soft 
grass and tender flowers. 



CHAPTER XXXVni. 

WASHINGTON AND HIS ARMY. 

Washington's Camps about Boston. — The Patriot Generals. — Storj' of Israel Putnam. — Dress 
of the Soldiers. — Pennsylvania Riflemen. — Story of a Marksman. — Washington's Anxieties. 

The ball had opened, and events followed each other thicker and 
faster. All those who had hesitated before, now took one side or 
the other. Before the summer was over, every colony, from New 
Hampshire to Georgia, was up in arms ; the thirteen royal governors 
were pushed from their royal stools, and obliged to go office-hunt- 
ing elsewhere. 

Washington had gathered his army together, and gone to Massa- 
chusetts, which was for the present the head-quarters of both 
armies. Boston had been fortified all about by the British; and the 
patriots who had not left the city before the battle of Bunker Hill, 
were prisoners in their own homes. In return, Washington sur- 
rounded Boston with his whole army, and held the country all about. 
He had several generals to help him bring order out of chaos, 
most of whom had gained military experience in the French and 
Indians wars. You can fancy it was no easy task to organize these 
raw recruits into an orderly and discipUned army. General Hora- 
tio Gates was one of the ablest of them all in this respect. Charles 
Lee of Virginia also did good service, and one of the most famous 
of all was Israel Putnam of Connecticut, whom the boys called " Old 
Put," a kind of pet name by which they 
showed their liking for him. He was famed 
for his pluck ever since his wolf hunt, 
which Avas known all over the State of Con- 
necticut. The wolf story is as follows : — 

When Putnam was a young man, a 

farmer in Connecticut, he was very much 

troubled by a wolf which for several years 

General Putnam ravagcd all the shccp hcrds for miles around. 




WASHINGTON AND HIS AKMY. 213 

One morning, on finding lie had lost a large number of sheep during 
the night, Putnam declared he would set out and destroy the fero- 
cious animal. He raised a party of neighbors, and they tracked 
the creature forty miles, till they came to her den. This den 
was a deep cave in the rocks, which a man could only enter by 
crawling on his hands and knees. They tried to smoke the animal 
out, but it was impossible. They set dogs in upon her, and the 
dogs came out with lacerated flesh, howling with pain. At length 
Putnam declared he would go in himself. Tying a rope round his 
legs, so that they might draw him out, when he should pull it a 
certain number of times, he crawled in slowly, holding a torch. 
He soon saw the eyes of the creature glaring from a corner of the 
cave. He gave the signal to be pulled out, and loading his gun 
outside, crawled in again, till he was close upon the monster. Then 
he fired, and, blinded by smoke, deafened by the noise of the gun, 
was pulled out again. For the third time he entered, and finding 
the animal was dead, he hauled her out by the ears, while his com- 
panions pulled him by the rope round his legs. His clothes were all 
torn off his back, and his face black with smoke and powder, but he 
had killed the wolf, and kept her skin as a trophy. Since then he 
had fought in the French and Indian wars, and wherever danger 
was, he was foremost. 

You can form no idea what a task lay before Washington and his 
generals. Here was a great body of men hurried into the field from 
farms and workshops, with no more idea of military drill than a 
herd of sheep, with miserable old muskets, scanty supply of powder 
and balls, and no money to buy any. Then the dress of this pro- 
vincial army was enough to excite the laugh which the British sol- 
diers raised at them. Some of them were dressed in the long-tailed 
linsey-woolsey coats, and linsey-woolsey breeches, which had been 
spun and woven in farm-house kitchens ; some wore smock-frocks 
like a butcher, also made of homespun ; some wore suits of British 
broadcloth, so long used for Sunday clothes that they had grown 
rather the worse for wear ; and every variety of dress and fashion 
figured in these motley ranks. 

When General Washington rode grandly out on horseback, 
dressed in his fine blue broadcloth coat, with buff colored facmgs, 
buff waistcoat and breeches, a hat with black cockade, and a sword 
in an elegantly embroidered sword-belt, I think his heart must 
have sunk within him as he looked on his tatterdemalion army, and 



214 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

then glanced over towards Boston, and thought of the British 
soldiers, gorgeous in brand-new uniforms, trained to march up to the 
cannon's mouth like a solid wall in motion. 

But for all that, there was good stuff in that American array, bad 
as it looked. Many of those men had fought hand-to-hand with sav- 
age beasts and still more savage Indians. They had learned to pick 
off their adversaries from behind trees and rocks, and when their 
powder gave out, they could fight with clubbed muskets. When a 
company of Pennsylvania riflemen came to join the army, a news- 
paper of the day says, " They already show scars which would do 
honor to Homer's Iliad." 

Two brothers in this company took a board five inches long by 
seven wide, with a piece of white paper, the size of a dollar, in the 
middle. One of them stood up and held it between his knees, while 
the other shot, at sixty yards off, eight bullets one after the other 
through the white, and never grazed his brother's leg. When the 
spectators wondered, they said " fifty boys in the company could do 
that feat," and then they offered to shoot apples off each other's 
head, as William Tell did, if the spectators would like to see it 
done.^ Their feats were stopped, however, and they saved their 
powder for other uses. These were not men to laugh at, though 
some of them had no better uniform than an Indian hunting shirt, 
and leggings and moccasins of deer-skin to cover legs and feet. 

Looked at in the most hopeful light, the aspect of the army was 
discouraging, and Washington must have passed many anxious days 
and sleepless nights, as he lay Avitli his army on the banks of the 
Mystic River. He knew better than anybody that there was hardly 
powder enough in their whole camp to fight a two hoars' battle, and 
that half the officers knew no more of military affairs than their 
men. But he was one of those men who carry a grand, serene front, 
no matter what trouble gnaws the heart. He did not go fretting and 
blustering about, telling people "how worried he was. And when 
some people, who did not understand the facts, blamed him because 
he did not march upon the British, he kept silent, and did not 
betray by a look the true state of affairs. He was, of all men, the 
one who best knew how to be patient and bide his time for action. 
It is to that grand quality of this great man, that this countr}'^ owes 
a greater debt than we can rightly estimate. 

1 These feats, and many others of like daring, are related by the newspapers of that date. 



THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 215 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 

On to Canada. — Mont^onicrv clothes his Soldiers in Montreal. — Benedict Arnold's Heroic 
March to Quebec. — Attack on the Citadel. — Montgomery's Dealii. — Brave Act of Aaron 
Burr. — Retreat from ( 'anada. 

Early in the summer of 1775 the Americans began to look 
eagerly towards CanacLi, to see if there were any signs of help from 
that quarter. Ever since their success in New York, Ethan Allen 
and Benedict Arnold had been thundering in the ears of Congress 
and the commander-in-chief, " Cn to Montreal and Quebec. Let 
us take them as we took Crown Point and Ticonderoga." 

Washington knew as well as anybody how important it was to 
hold these places, but he knew also that there was not enough 
ammunition in the Continental army to besiege a log hut, to say 
nothing of the strong walls of Quebec. All summer he was urging 
on the various colonies the necessity of sending powder to the army, 
" Send what powder and lead you can spare, be it ever so little," 
was the burden of his prayer to all the patriotic governors. He 
even sent to Bermuda and got from them one hundred barrels of 
gun powder, a most valuable acquisition to his small store. 

In September, two detachments were ordered to march to Canada. 
General Montgomery was the brave soldiei- who had helped Wolfe 
at the taking of Quebec from the French. He had married a wife 
in America, and settled down in Virginia after the French war. 
When the Revolution began, he went into it, heart and soul. He 
was the leader of one of these divisions, and was sent north through 
Lake Champlain down the St. Lawrence to Montreal. General 
Schuyler of Albany started with him, but he was obliged to turn 
aside in order to make treaty with the Mohawk Indians, who lived 
all about Albany. You remember Sir William Johnson who had 
made such good friends of these Indians, tie was now dead, and 
his son, who succeeded him in "Johnson Castle," was a British 
officer. The Americans feared he would make all the Mohawk 
Indians hostile to them, and as nobody among the American gener- 
als could deal with them as well as General Philip Schuyler of 
Albany, he left ^lontgomery to go and treat with them. 

Montgomery went on to Montreal, and, as the British army in 
Canada was nearly all withdrawn to the colonies, he found no sol- 



216 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

diers to defend it, and took the city with very httle trouble. There 
he found such treasures ! whole store-houses full of warm woolen 
goods, blankets, shirts, jackets, and trousers, all of good English 
cloth and flannel, to clothe his army. They were a ragged set of 
fellows, I imagine, when they marched into Montreal, but many of 
them marched out again, like Harry Gill, " with blankets on their 
backs, and coats enough to smother nine." They carried off an 
extra supply to give to some of the shivering fellows who were 
coming up to Quebec to join them in front of its walls. 

Montgomery left part of his soldiers in Montreal, and went on to- 
wards Quebec. All this time the second division had been on its 
way there. They had been ordered to go up through Maine, and 
meet jNIontgomery on the other side of Quebec. Their leader was 
Colonel Benedict Arnold, who had behaved so gallantly at Ticon- 
deroga with Allen. Allen would have been sent too, probably, if 
he had not made a foolish attack on jNIontreal before Montgomery 
got there, been taken prisoner, and sent in irons to England as 
a traitor. 

General Arnold had a young captain with him, named Aaron 
Burr, a brave, gallant young fellow, just out of college, whose name 
I wish you to remember, because you will hear more about him in 
the course of this history. Their march to Quebec was terribly 
severe. They had to go up the Kennebec River in boats, and when 
they got to places where the river was not navigable, they carried 
their boats on their backs, till they could find a stream leading to 
the St. Lawrence. It was bitter cold, and they marched sometimes 
waist deep in icy water ; they slept in the leafless forests on freez- 
ing nights ; their clothes were ragged ; and in this march, five hun- 
dred miles long, they wore out their shoes, and many froze their feet. 
Their provisions gave out also, and some of them ate the leather of 
their shoes and knapsacks. Many of them turned back discouraged, 
and straggled home to Massachusetts, or died by the way. Still the 
brave Arnold went on unflinchingly, followed by the brave men 
who would not retreat, in spite of all this suffering. Yes, and many 
brave women, too, who had followed the army, hoping to be of ser- 
vice to the cause, shared all these hardships, and kept firmly on till 
they reached the shores of the river opposite Quebec, and halted 
there. Then young Aaron Burr continued alone his march more 
than one hundred miles farther, to find Montgomery and tell him 
they were ready to join him in the attack on Quebec. 



THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 217 

On the 31st of December, the hist day of the yenv, a severe snow- 
storm raged, and in the midst of it, Montgomery gave the signal for 
the attack. Montgomery was to attempt it on one side, Arnold on 
the other. It was a fierce and bloody struggle, a fight hand-to-hand 
almost, between the American soldiers outside, and the small garrisoi> 
inside, who had the advantage of the city walls to help their small 
numbers. I think the Americans might have beaten, — and if they 
had taken Quebec that day, the stars and stripes might be flying at 
this moment from that grand old citadel, — but just as Montgomery 
was storming the second battery, just as he cried aloud, " Follow me, 
my brave boys, and Quebec is ours! " a grape-shot struck him, and 
he went down without another word. The soldiers who followed 
him, were mown down by the same volley from the cannon, the 
rest scattered and fled, and Quebec was lost. 

I must not forget one brave deed of Captain Aaron Burr's, who 
stood beside Montgomery when he fell. He was only a slight, del- 
icate looking stripling, and Montgomery was a tall, heavy man, 
twice his weight almost. Yet, when he saw him fall, young Burr 
snatched up the dead body of his general, and, staggering under his 
load, dragged it down the ascent away from the fire of the enemy. 

After Montgomery's fall, Arnold, who had made his attack from 
the opposite side, was beaten off and forced to retreat. He stayed 
in Canada several months, hoping he might see an opportunity for 
victory, but in May, 1776, the Britisli army from Boston came to 
reinforce it, and Arnold left his post before Quebec, took the sol- 
diers whom Montgomery had left in Montreal, and left Canada to 
the British. It is possible that Canada might have gone with the 
United Colonies, if there had not been so large a proportion of in- 
habitants there (the old French settlers), who had no interest in 
the war, and cared very little which side was victorious. There 
was little of the liberty loving element in Canada, which had been 
fostered among the English who had settled in New England, Vir- 
ginia, and the rest of the thirteen colonies. 



218 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XL. 

AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The Redcoats imprisoned in Boston. — Howe concludes to leave Boston. — The Tories go to 
Halifax. — Entrance of AVashington into Boston. — Joy of the Patriots. — Washington goes 
to New York. — The Hessians in America. — A British Fleet attacks Charleston. 

All the winter of 1775 and 177G, Washington remained in his en- 
campments about Boston, keeping the army of the redcoats inclosed 
there, ahnost as if the city were their prison-house. The British 
had for some time been obliged to live on salt provisions, for want 
of fresh meat, and there was some danger that even their salted 
meats might give out. They were short of fuel, too, and General 
Howe had taken down several wooden houses, and the " Old North 
Meeting-house," and had them chopped up for firewood. The 
British took great delight in showing all the contempt they could 
for the Puritan places of worship. Not content with chopping up 
the wood of the old North jNleeting-house to replenish their wood- 
piles, they had used the " Old South Church " for a riding-school, 
taking out the pews and strewing the floor with litter for the horses. 
One especially handsome pew, which had a carved back, they had 
taken, early in their occupation of Boston, to make a fence for a pig- 
pen. The British soldiers amused themselves by shooting into the 
Puritan churches, and otherwise mutilating them, calling tliem 
" d d Presbvterian meetiufj-houses." 

In March AVashington began to fortif}'^ on Dorchester Heiglits, 
an eminence very near the city. His movements alarmed General 
Howe very much, and he began at once to make plans to take his 
army away from the city, and go to Halifax in Nova Scotia, where 
he knew he. should be quite safe. Accordingly he gave orders to 
the Tories and the soldiers to take everything out of town Avhich 
would be of any service to the Americans, and what they could not 
take away they were ordered to destroy. On this, the army took 
all the blankets, and woolen and linen clothing in town ; they 
spiked some of their cannon, and threw some into the harbor ; and 
did all the mischief they could before leaving. The Tories living 
in Boston, who had hoped the British army would stay and protect 
them and their property there, were terribly alarmed when they 
found General Howe was going. Fifteen hundred of tliem packed 
up their household goods and valua,bles, as many of them as they 



AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 219 



could carry, and prepared to go to Halifax with the army. Then 
the soldiers scattered all about the entrances to the city an ugly 
little iron instrument with four sharp points sticking out in all 
directions which was called a " crow's foot.'' This was done that 
the horses and men of the Americans might tread upon it in en- 
tering the town, and be disabled in their feet. At last, one day in 
March, Genertil Howe and his army took ships and sailed out of 
Boston harbor for Halifax, never to rule again over the free capital 
of Massachusetts. 

You can imagine how glad the pati'iotic Americans of Boston 
were — those who had been shut in there with the Tories and the 
" redcoats " — when they saw General Washington come marching 
in at the head of his troops after the British ships were gone. 
Some of these Boston people had fathers, husbands, sons, in the 
army, and there was much thankfulness, and many tears shed for 
joy, at meeting with dear friends who had been parted in these hard 
days, 

\^ The old British flag, which had once been so dear, was hauled 
down from all its high, places, and publicly 
burned, and a new American flag hoisted in its 
stead. The new flag had still the British em- 
blem in the corner, where our stars now adori) 
it, but it had thirteen gorgeous stripes, of red 
and white, to represent the thirteen colonies. 
Afterwards the British" union-jack" was taken 
from the corner, and thirteen stars on a blue 
ground put in its place. We add a new star 
for ever}^ new State, and our banner is now al- 
most as thick with stars as the milky way. 
Thus our flag (which w.e are proud to think 
the handsomest in the world) has grown to its 
present beauty. 

In April, Washington concluded to leave a sufficient number of 
troops in Boston to protect the town, and remove with the main 
part of his army to New York, He accordingly did so, and made 
his head-quarters in a handsome house on " Richmond Hill," two 
miles from the city. To-day the site of the once handsome country 
mansion is the corner of Varick and Charlton Streets, one of the 
dingiest and most crowded thoroughfares of the great metropolis. 

General Putnam also took up his quarters near the Battery, This 
bluff old soldier had brought his wife and daughters, and with him 




The Stars and Stripes. 



220 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they were busy spinning flax, day after day, providing linen to 
make shirts for the army. Mrs. Washington was also in New York. 
She was a rich woman, with great estates in Virginia, but she was 
never idle, and in her leisure moments kept her knitting-work at 
hand. Ah I these are women worth reading about, who were ready 
to aid the cause of liberty both with heart and hand. 

The British army was now pouring troops into America. Gen- 
eral Cornwallis and Sir Peter Parker had been sent from England 
with a large body of men. A brother of General Howe was made 
lord admiral of the English fleet. Sir Henry Clinton had been 
sent to South Carolina with ten ships. An army of 17,000 Ger- 
mans from Hesse-Cassel, under command of General De Hiester had 
been hired by the English to help do their American fighting. All 
these new recruits, added to the army already in Canada, made a 
force that looked almost overpowering, in comparison with the 
Americans. 

As I said before. Sir Henry Clinton sailed south with his ten 
ships. There had already been some fighting in North Carolina, 
and the people in all the southern colonies were up in arms and 
waiting for the coming* struggle. Clinton was going down there to 
attack Charleston, South Carolina, hoping 
if he could bring their largest town into sub- 
jection, he could soon take the whole col- 
ony. But they were ready for him. As 
soon as Clinton's fleet appeared in sight, 
the guns from Fort Sullivan opened on him. 
There was hot firing and a sharp struggle. 
In the midst of it a ball from one of 
General Moultrie. CHnton's ships struck tlic flagstaff which 

was raised over the fort and cut it in two, so that the banner 
fell outside the walls. It lay there for a moment with the hot 
fire from the enemy playing u])on the wall under which it lay. 
Only for a moment however, for Sergeant Jasper leaped the inclos- 
ure, snatched up the colors, and bearing them safely inside, ran 
them up in sight again, where they waved gayly over the smoke and 
din of battle. 

The day ended in triumpli, and the British ships were forced to 
withdraw. They had met so warm a reception, that for two years 
they let the Carolinas alone. As for Colonel INIoultrie, commander 
of the fort, he received the thanks of Congress, and the fort was 
afterwards named for him, and bears the name of Moultrie to-day. 





INDEPENDENCE DECLAKED. 221 

CHAPTER XLI. 

INDEPENDENCE DECLARED. 

Colonial Feeling towards England. — The Declaration of Independence. — Our National Holi- 
day. — Retreat from Kipp's Landing. — Anger of 'Washington. — Mrs. Murray's Ruse to save 
General Putnam. — Retreat through New Jersey. — A Gloomy Outlook for Washington. — 
Bad News from Newport and Lake Champlain. — Prison Ships. — Washington crosses the 
Delaware. — Victory at Trenton. 

At the beginning of the wur with England 

there were very few men in the United Col- 
onies who had any idea of becoming free and 
independent states, entirely separate and dis- 
tinct from the power of England. They were 
resolved they would not yield to unjust taxa-- 
tion, but beyond that they thought very little 
about the future of the colonies. Most of these 
people loved England as their country and 
spoke of her tenderly, as " home " and the '' mother-land." But 
since the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, there had been 
a sfrowing- feelino-, that if the Americans were to fight for their 
rights, they must not fight as " rebels " against a government 
whose power over them in many respects they acknowledged, but 
as free ajid independent states, who had a right to govern them- 
selves, and were ready to prove the right at the cannon's mouth. 

In July of 1776 Congress met together, and after much debate 
what they should do about it, agreed to declare " that they were, 
and ought to be, free and independent states." There were many 
members in Congress, as well as in the colonies, very much opposed 
to this declaration, but those in favor of it finally triumphed, and a 
committee, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John 
Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, was appointed to 
write out the " Declaration of Independence." Every American 
citizen has read this " Declaration of Independence," and is famil- 
iar with its ringing sentences. It is one of the simplest yet grand- 
est statements of a people's right to liberty, ever written, and 
covers with honor the names of the men who wrote it. 

After this paper had been presented to Congress, all the members 
signed it. It was a dangerous thing to do, for if they failed in the 
war with Great Britain, every man who had his name signed to 
this document would certainly be hung as a rebel. But none there 



222 



STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



were cowards. John Hancock signed his name in strong bold signa- 
ture, and not one hand looks as if it had faltered. Stephen Hop- 
kins's signature looks a little tremulous, but that was because he 
was an old man and had had a stroke of palsy. 




Independence Hall. 

You slioidd have heard the old bell m the belfry at Philadelphia 
ring out its joy peal, when it was announced that the Declaration 
was signed. As fast as the messenger could ride from Philadelphia 
to New York, as fast as the news could be sent to Massachusetts, 
Virginia, and the Carolinas, one after the other, the bells in all the 
church-steeples took up the peal of the big bell in Philadelphia, 
and rang out the anthem of Freedom all over the land. The boys 
lit bonfires at night, and the cannons blazeS by day. In every way 
the heart of the people tried to shoAV how it beat for joy at the fact 
that they were now united to throw off the yoke of English tyranny 
and be a free nation. The Declaration was signed on the 4th of 



INDEPENDENCE DECLARED. 223 

July, 1776, and John Adams, who was one of the men who helped 
draAV it up, wrote to . his wife, " Tliis day ought to be celebrated 
with pomp, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, 
from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward 
forever." It is our national holiday, the 4th of July, of which 
Adams writes. 

All summer long after the Declaration, the British kept gathering 
their forces about New York city. General Howe returned from 
Halifax ; Lord Henry Clinton came up with his ships from the 
siege of Charleston ; Lord CornwalHs and the Earl Percy marched 
their troops thither, and General De Hiester, with his band of Hes- 
sians, whom the Americans hated worst of all those who were to 
jfight against them, also joined them. The Americans were occupy- 
ing New York city, and Long Island and Governor's Island close 
by. The British, who had got a foothold on Staten Island, now 
took active measures to drive the Americans awav from their strong 
points. They landed first on Long Island, where General Sullivan 
was commanding a large body of patriots. There was a fight, in 
which the Americans were driven to take refuge inside their lines 
in the city of Brookl^'n. Washington knew his army was not strong 
enough to hold Brooklyn, and in the afternoon, while the fight was 
still raging, he crossed the river from New York, to see what could 
be done. He decided at once to remove his army to New York 
city, from Brooklyn. Under cover of night he managed the trans- 
portation of nine thousand men, with all their baggage and arms, 
over the East River to New York, and did it so quietly that the 
British, who were asleep in their tents not five hundred yards off, 
never waked up. Fortunately, too, there was a very heavy fog 
which covered the river from two o'clock till daylight, and when 
it lifted, and the British began to wake up and get breakfast, all 
the Yankees were flown. 

Next, the British crossed to attack New York. They made their 
first attempt at Thirty-fourth Street, New York city ; it was then 
called Kipp's Landing. When the guard stationed there saw Gen- 
eral Howe's troops putting in for the Landing, they began a wretched 
and disorderly retreat, without trying to keep the enemy off. 
Washington rode in front of them, shouted at them, waved his gun, 
snapped his pistol in their faces, called them " cowards," but it was 
of no use. They ran like sheep. Then Washington, in a great anger 
threw his hat upon the ground, and cried, " Are these the men with 

15 



224 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

whom I am to defend America." He was so unconscious of danger, 
as he sat there looking after his retreating men, tliat*lie might have 
been taken prisoner, or killed, if one of his aides-de-camp had not 
seized his horse's reins and fairly dragged him off the field. 

When the British began to land in New York, brave old General 
Putnam led one division out of the city by the Hudson River road. 
He was to meet Washington at a certain point, and they were then 
to join in a retreat up the river. It happened that at this very time 
a party of British, more than double the number of General Put- 
nam's men, were coming doam this very road. Governor Tryon, the 
royal governor of New York, was in this party. If Putnam should 
meet the British army before he reached a certain turn in the road, 
where he was to branch off to join Washington, he would certainly 
be captured. Fortunately, on the way down, the British army 
passed the house of Mrs. Robert Murray, a lady who was a stanch 
rebel, although she was a Quaker, and did not approve of wars or 
fighting. She knew General Putnam was coming up, unaware of 
his danger, and that Governor Tryon and his men were marching 
down, unconscious of the prize which might fall into their clutches. 
W^hen the British neared her mansion, she went out to the British 
governor and officers, and politely invited them in to luncheon. It 
was very hot August weather. She had delicious cake, wine, and 
many tempting viands, spread for them. Their men could rest in 
the cool shade of the groves and orchards round her house. .It was 
too pleasant to resist, and they all rested and talked ; and Governor 
Tryon laughed at Mrs. Murray because she had been said to sym- 
pathize with the "dirty rebels;" and Mrs. Murray laughed and 
joked back again, while all the time, step by step, General Putnam 
was nearing that turn in the road which meant safety to him and 
his men. When the British officers said " Good-by " to Mrs. Murray, 
mounted their horses, and shouted " march on " to their men, Put- 
nam had just turned the corner, and was safe on his way to the 
commander-in-chief. So it was said afterward that " Mrs. Murray 
saved General Putnam and the American cause that day." 

The British now held New York city, and the Americans were 
obliged to retreat northward. Washington put a strong garrison 
into Fort Washington on the banks of the Hudson, and went to 
pitch his tents on White Plains. But the great army of redcoats 
followed him up. They drove him from White Plains, and then 
went down and took Fort Washington, — another severe loss to the 
patriot cause. 



INDEPENDENCE DECLARED. 225 

Then Wasliington was obliged to flee before the British army 
for weeks. He knew it was useless to stand and give battle. The 
enemy too greatly outnumbered him. D^i^y by day his army was 
growing smaller. The time of enlistment of many of his regiments 
expired, and the men, disheartened, woidd not enlist again, but 
threw down their guns and went home. 

These were gloomy days for Washington and his fellow-patriots. 
I wonder he was not discouraged enough to give up his sword and 
surrender to the British. But his invincible spirit was always equal 
to the test, and he wore just the same serene countenance, when on 
a bitter cold day in December he passed through the town of Tren- 
ton, New Jersey, and crossing the Delaware River at that point, 
encamped on the Pennsylvania shore, with his army of half-starved 
and half-frozen .men, in the comfortless winter twilight. Just as 
his last boat-load of men left the Trenton side. General Howe with 
his army entered the other extremity of the town, with flying colors 
and beating drums. 

In the mean time, discouraging news came from the North. Sir 
Peter Parker had sailed from Fort iNIoultrie to Newport, and taken 
that gallant seaport of Rhode Island. From Lake Champlain, where 
Colonel Benedict Arnold had been commanding a fleet, bad news 
came also. Arnold had sixteen small vessels on the lake, with 
which he had endeavored to protect Crown Point. He had failed 
in this ; and the British now held all the strong points on the lake. 
From thence, they hoped to descend upon Albany, and hold all 
the country down the Hudson to New York city. Arnold had 
cheated the British out of his little fleet, however. In a dark and 
foggy night he had slipped through the enemy's lines, run all his 
ships ashore, set them on fire, and saw every one burn to the water's 
edge before he would give them up to the British. 

During the year the English had taken many hundreds of prison- 
ers, and accounts of the way in which his men were treated, con- 
stantly reached Wasliington's ears. The Americans were confined 
in the vilest of prisons, or, worse still, in " prison ships," which were 
anchored in harbors held by the British fleets. One of tliese " prison 
ships," called the Jersey^ outdid all the others in horror. It was 
dirty beyond description, and our men were thrust into its hold like 
pigs in a pen, with no air, except what came in at small gratings. 
It smelled so foully that no one could enter the place without becom- 
ing sick ; and there, furnished with wretched food and impure water. 



226 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

our men sickened and died by hundreds. Even some of the British 
wrote letters of remonstrance against this manner of treating ene- 
mies of war. 

Thus matters stood in December, 1776. It was a dark out-look 
for the friends of libert}^ and gave joy and encouragement to the 
British and their Tory friends. But as the Christmas holidays 
drew near, and the cold grew more severe, Washington formed a 
plan which would decide the fate of the American army. He knew 
that the forces over in Trenton, under British command, were largely 
composed of the hated Hessians. He knew that, according to their 
national custom, they would keep Christmas holidays in great mer- 
riment, and he resolved then to strike a decisive blow. He made 
all his preparations to cross the river on. Christmas Eve, but the 
river was so full of ice it delayed him several hours, and he did not 
start until the evening of the 25th. It was a dark night, with flakes 
of snow occasionally falling. The river was full of broken masses 
of ice, through which tlieir boats struggled with difficulty. It was 
four o'clock in the morning when the last boat-load of men reached 
the Trenton shore. They crept silently along the bank to where 
the Hessians lay, tired out with Christmas revelry, and thus burst 
suddenly upon their unsuspecting enemy. It was a glorious vic- 
tory. The Hessians were captured almost before they could rub 
their eyes open. Washington lost hardly ten men in all, and cap- 
tured almost one thousand Hessians, besides cannon, guns, and am- 
munition. The Hessians were sent off for winter-quarters into cen- 
tral Pennsylvania, where they found many. German settlers who 
treated them kindly, and spoke their own language. They had a 
very comfortable time there, and always spoke of Washington as "a 
very good rebel." 

After his victory Washington recrossed the river for a few days, 
but finally returned, and took up his quarters for the rest of the 
winter in Trenton. Thus the year 1776, which had seemed so 
dark to the Americans, ended with new hope and brightness, which 
came from Washington's success in " crossing the Delaware.'''' 



EVENTS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA IN 1777. 227 

CHAPTER XLII. 

EVENTS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA IN 1777. 

Rebels and Redcoats in Friendly Converse. — Battle of Princeton. — Washington at Morristown. 
— The Marquis de Lafayette. — Other Noble Foreigners. — Defeat at Brandywine. — Story 
of Lydia Darrah. — Good News on the Way. 

On the first day of the new year (1777), Washington was en- 
camped at Trenton. Although he had won this fine victory over 
the Hessians, his army was in bad condition. The new recruits 
came in slowly and rather unwillingly, and when they did come 
were very raw material for soldiers, and must undergo incessant 
drill till they were taught what military discipline meant. 

As soon as he heard of the victory over the Hessians, the British 
general who commanded the New Jersey division of the army, drew 
all his forces together at Princeton, another town in New Jersey, 
eleven miles from Trenton. This British oflftcer was Lord Corn- 
wallis, a brave gentleman, who had opposed in England the policy 
which led to the American war, but nevertheless would not refuse 
to take part in it when his regiment was ordered to sail for the col- 
onies. 

Cornwallis found that Washington was settling down in Trenton, 
apparently disposed to stay there, and on the second of January 
he sent a large body of troops to attack him. They had a little 
skirmishing during the day, but as night came on both armies began 
to get supper and make preparations for a night encampment, with 
only a narrow stream of water between them. You must not im- 
agine that two armies are always quarreling. When the generals 
do not give the command to advance or attack, the privates of 
opposing armies are often on very good terms with each other. 
When the British and Yankees found themselves encamped on oppo- 
site sides of a stream, they often addressed each other very amicably 
as "redcoats" and "rebels." In New York Avhen the armies lay 
so close together before Washington's retreat to White Plains, they 
exchanged many civilities in the shape of packages of tobacco, which 
they would convey across the Harlem River from one camp to 
another. Thus, after some not unfriendly interchanges of this kind, 
the two armies sunk into repose at Trenton. 

Meanwhile Washington was very anxious. He knew he had not 
disciplined men enough to meet the army at daybreak, and he saw 



228 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they meant to force him to battle. What should he do? He called 
a council of his officers in his tent, and while the camp-fires burned 
brightly and the men slept soundly, they talked the matter over. 
Cornvvallis had taken the best part of his army from Princeton and 
left a small force there. How would it answer to wake the army 
about midnight, steal a silent march to Princeton, capture the Brit- 
ish there and hold the town ? This suggestion wa? approved. The 
Americans were aroused. The camp-fires were built high in oi'der 
that the British might fancy from their light that the army still re- 
mained to feed them, and one hour after midnight Washington Avas 
on his march to Princeton. The winter was mild, and the roads had 
been very muddy, but by good fortune the weather grew cold, dur- 
uig the night the road stiffened and froze smooth, and the heavy 
artillery, otherwise so difficult to move, rolled lightly over the hard 
ground as if it were a polished floor. 

When they reached Princeton, the remnant of the British left 
there were preparing to march to Trenton. They di'ew up outside 
the town on seeing the approach of the Americans, and awaited 
their attack. At first, victory seemed to lie with the British ; when 
Washington came into the field with a fresh body of men, the Brit- 
ish were driven from their position, and the Americans gained the 
day. Washington grieved at the death of one brave officer, Gen- 
eral Hugh Mercer, who was covered with wounds, and fell with his 
head broken and disfigured by blows from a clubbed musket given 
him after he was wounded. 

Cornwallis followed closely on Washington's heels, but he had 
already left the scene of battle and gone to ^lorristown, burning all 
bridges behind him. At Morristown he made his winter-quarters. 
The Jerse}^ people, who had been greatly outraged by the conduct of 
the British army in ravaging their farms and destrojnng their 
stores, flocked to Washington with offers of food and assistance. 
The militia of New Jersey added their efforts to the army. Wash- 
ington was able to fortify Elizabeth, Newark, and the other towns 
about him, and Cornwallis, seeing that an attack would be unwise, 
gave up New Jersey and withdrew. 

Washington remained all the winter and spring of 1777 at Mor- 
ristown. The main portion of the English army was in New York 
under General Howe ; and the English fleet under Admiral Howe 
rode at anchor in New York harbor. This fleet was a constant 
source of anxiety to Washington. He was not sure but it might at 



EVENTS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA IN 1777. 229 

any time attack one of tlie large commercial towns of Boston, Phila- 
delphia, or Charleston. 

Howe's real design was to get possession of Pliiladel])hia, the seat 
of Congress, but he kept making movements to deceive Washington, 
and blind him to his intention. Washington came out of Morris- 
town in May, strengthened his army in New York in order to pro- 
tect the Hudson, and hovered about New Jersey trying to find out 
what Howe was going to do. All summer long the armies were 
like two cats, who were stealthil}^ waiting to spring whenever one 
should find the other off his guard for a moment. 

During the summer of 1777, Washington met for the first time a 
most important friend and ally to the American cause. This was 
the young Marquis de Lafayette, a Frenchman, who had so great 
love for liberty that the struggle of America to be free roused 
all his sympathy. He was a nobleman, young, wealthy, and just 
married to a beautiful girl of eighteen. He was himself little more 
than nineteen years old. When he met a group of Americans in 
France who were trying to interest Frenchmen in our countr}^ he 
said, " I have always held the cause of America dear ; now I go to 
serve it personally." 

He left his estates, his country, and his wife, and taking with 
him a large sum of ready mone}^ sailed for this country. When he 
arrived he gave freely for the chjthing and equipments of the troops 
in South Carolina. He sent $12,000 to Washington to aid him in 
]i;tying off his soldiers, and he wrote to Congress asking permission 
t(j fight in their armies, saying, " The moment I heard of America, 
I loved her. The moment I heard she was fighting for liberty, I 
burned with a desire to bleed for her." 

This glorious young man, whose name is dear to America from 
that day, Washington met in Philadelphia at a dinner given him on 
the 3d of August. 

In the same ship which brought Lafayette, many other noble 
foreigners came also. Among these were several Polish gentlemen, 
who had fought for liberty in their own unhappy country, and were 
the warm friends of America. One of them was the Count Pulaski, 
who entered the army at once as a volunteer. Baron de Kalb, a 
French officer of rank and great bravery, was among those who 
offered the service of his sword to Washington. The sympathy and 
advice of these brave soldiers must have greatly aided and en- 
couraged our general. 



230 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

As soon as it was seen that Howe was moving toward Philadel- 
phia, Congress was urgent that Washington should make a gallant 
defense there. Washington was not yet quite ready to fight, but he 
could not withstand Congress, and when he saw the British forces 
approach, he brought his army to the bank of Brandywine Creek, 
and made a stand there. 

On the 11th of September the two armies met at Brandywine, 
and here the American troops suffered one of the severest defeats in 
the war. They were driven back to take refuge in Philadelphia, 
and lost 1,400 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. General 
Lafayette was wounded in the leg, but not dangerously. He fought 
gallantly, receiving the thanks of Congress for his bravery. Count 
Pulaski shared with him the thanks of the country for his services 
on that field. 

The British, elated with success at Brandywine Creek, marched 
on toward Philadelphia. Washington, rested and refreshed, and 
strengthened by troops sent from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
went out of the city prepared to meet the enemy again. It is said 
that our commander-in-chief was never so firmly resolved on victory 
as after the defeat at Brandywine. But a terrible rain-storm overtook 
his army, and before they could guard against it, their guns and 
powder were wet and almost ruined. Washington was forced to 
give up all show of battle. Howe pushed on rapidly. Congress 
gathered up its papers, and hurried away to Lancaster, to avoid 
being taken prisoners, just before a division of the conquering red- 
coats under Cornwallis, marched into Philadelphia, to the victorious 
music of their drums and fifes. On their way to the city they had 
met a small portion of Washington's forces, under General Wayne, 
and had killed three hundred of our men, almost without loss to them- 
selves. The clouds hung very dark over our army at this time. 

Part of Howe's army now were posted in Germantown, three 
miles from Philadelphia, and Washington Avas only eleven miles 
away. He marched upon Howe, hoping to surprise him and gain a 
victory there. Fortune seemed everywhere unfavorable. At first, 
indeed, tl^e Americans were successful, but in the end, they were 
obliged to retreat, and the battle of Germantown was almost as 
fatal as that of Brandywine. This was early in the month of Octo- 
ber, and nearly all that had been gained at Princeton and Trenton 
seemed lost to our arms by the successes of the Ili-itish in Pennsyl- 
vania. The Americans held two forts on the Delaware River, Forts 



EVENTS IN NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA IN 1777. 231 

Mifflin and Mercer, and they hoped by keeping these to cut General 
Howe off from any communication with the sea. Even here they 
were disappointed, for Howe, seeing the importance of the forts as 
clearly as Washington did, sent an overpowering force down and 
captured them both before the close of November. Howe now made 
himself comfortable for the winter in the pleasant mansions of Phila- 
delphia, while \Y^^li"^&^'^^^ remained for a time at White Marsh. 

While the armies lay in this position, Washington was once very 
near being surprised, and perhaps would have been totally destroyed, 
if he had not been warned and put on his guard by a woman who 
risked her life to save him. This woman was Lydia Darrah, of 
Philadelphia, a member of the Society of Quakers, many of whom, 
while holding war a sin, gave their prayers and all their influence to 
the cause of liberty, Lydia Darrah lived opposite the house where 
General Howe had his quarters, and one of his principal officers had 
rooms at her house. One evening this officer instructed her to send 
her family to bed early, see that there was a good fire and candles 
burning in his room, and be ready to admit General Howe, and let 
him out again secretly when he was ready to depart. Lydia obeyed 
all these directions. When night came she let General Howe in at 
her front door, locked it after him, and when he was safely in his 
officer's apartment, she took off her shoes, crept softly up-stairs, 
and listened at the keyhole. There she heard them plan to sur- 
prise Washington, and take him and his whole army. When she 
had heard enough, she went trembling to bed, and was apparently 
so sound asleep that the officer had to knock again and again, when 
he came to rouse her to let General Howe out of the house. 

Next day good Mrs. Darrah got a pass from General Howe to go 
to mill and get some flour ground, outside the lines of the army in 
Philadelphia. Off she walked with a bag of wheat in her arms, to 
the outposts of the patriot army, twenty-five miles away. Meeting 
an officer there, she told her story, and begged the Americans to 
put Washington at once on his guard. When Howe's forces 
marched toward White Marsh, with the greatest secrecy, they found 
such excellent preparations to receive them, that they turned round 
and marched back again, without striking a blow. 

The officer questioned Mrs. Darrah. '• Was any one in your 
house stirring the night General Howe was here ? " "Not a soul," 
she answered. " Then the walls of this house must have heard our 
plans," he said, " for some one reported them to the rebel Washing- 



232 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ton. When we got to White Marsh, he was all ready for us, and 
we all marched back like a parcel' of fools." 

It was now December, and the winter threatened to be severe. 
Washington's campaign of 1777 was ended. It had not been suc- 
cessful ; and I very much fear the war would have ended in total 
ruin to our cause,- if glorious news had not come from the north in 
the month of October previous. I must go back a little and tell 
you what had been happening elsewhere, while Washington was in 
the Jerseys and Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

* BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. 

The Burning of Danburv. — General Burgoyne. — Tlie Tory Brant. — Biirgoyne takes Ticon- 
deroga. — Defense of Fort Stanwix. — Brave General Herkimer. — Massacre of Jane 
McCrea. — Murmurs against General Schuyler. — The Relief of Fort Stanwix. — Stark's 
Speech at Bennington. — The Encampment on Bemis Heights. — Battle of Saratoga. — Sur- 
render of Burgoyne. 

We have seen how unfortunate Washington's campaign has been 
during the year 1777. We will now leave him for a time, and look 
after the British oj^erations elsewhere during this eventful year. 
Early in May, Tryon, the Tory governor of New York, was sent 
to Connecticut to capture some stores at Dan- 
bury. Tryon was hated by the Americans 
more than any of the New York leaders, because 
he was regarded as a renegade and an apostate. 
He was gallantly met by Colonel Benedict Ar- 
nold and a company of Connecticut militia, but 
he had already burned the stores at Danbury, 
„ , „ and made a successful retreat to New York, 

Caeneral burgoyne. 

doing all the mischief he could to the country through which he 
passed. 

In the North, on the Canada border, great events cast their 
shadows before. General John Burgoyne was sent from England 
early in May, with a picked army, great stores of ammunition, 
and the finest brass cannon yet sent over to subdue the rebels. He 
was a fat, pompous man, this General Burgoyne, who had written 
a comedy or two in his own country, and after he had reached 
America he amused himself by first writing a long proclamation to 




BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. 233 

the Americans, promising them what he would do if they would lay 
down tlieir arms and surrender peaceably to the Britisli, and threat- 
ening them with various terrible things, among the rest that he 
would let the Indians loose among them, if they refused to sur- 
render. He signed his proclamation with ten or fifteen high sound- 
ing titles, and circulated it all over the country. This document 
made the Americans very indignant, especially the threat about 
the Indians, and the patriotic newspapers made fun of Burgoyne's 
composition, and said it was the best comedy he had yet written. 

The plan of the northern campaign was the one most dear to 
the British commanders. It was to move down through New York 
from Canada, and take possession of the Hudson River to New 
York city, which was held by the British. In that way they would 
hold all the province of New York, cut New England off from the 
rest of the colonies, and crush her into subjection. They believed 
that in subduing New England, they should strike at the head and 
heart of rebellion and kill it altogether. 

This was Burgoyne's plan, and he had made an arrangement 
with Sir Henry Clinton, who commanded the fleet at tlie mouth of 
the Hudson, to move up the river and meet him at Albany. Let 
us see how his plan succeeded. 

The Americans at the North were commanded by General 
Philip Schuyler, a brave, high-spirited soldier, with the blood of 
the plucky Dutcli settlers in his veins. He was a native of Albany, 
and thoroughly familiar with all that country. He was now sta- 
tioned at Fort Edward, the head of boat navigation on the Hudson; 
and Ticonderoga and Crown Point, poorly garrisoned, were held 
by his troops. 

Burgoyne divided his army into two parts. 
He commanded in person the first division, 
which was to keep on the river. The com- 
mand of the other division he intrusted to 
General St. Leger, who was to go west, 
through the Mohawk Valley, and take the 
western forts in New York. St. Leger ex- 
pected to be greatly aided by Sir John John- 
son, a son of the famous Sir William John- 
son, who had been so popular among the 
Indians in the French wars. The Johnson ^°'*p^ ^'^"* 

family still retained their Indian influence, and as they were vio- 




234 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

lent Tories, it was expected that hosts of the Six Nations would 
flock to the British flag under Johnson. There was also a famous 
Indian chief named Brant, commanding the Indians here, who was 
a close friend of the British, and the wdiole country swarmed with 
Tories, who were formed into a company called " Johnson Greens." 
Thus you see St. Leger had a fair prospect of success. ' The forts 
against which he was marching were Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk 
River, where the city of Rome now stands, and Fort Oswego on 
Lake Erie. 

Burgoyne went down to besiege Ticonderoga with an army ten 
thousand strong. General St. Clair, commanding the fort, had only 
three thousand. One warm July morning he saw the red coats and 
brass cannon of the British glittering on the peaked top of Sugar 
Loaf Hill directly overlooking the fort. The Americans had not 
fortified this hill, because they thought no cannon could be drawn 
to its steep top. St. Clair was obliged to give orders to evacuate 
the fort, and led his men and all the stores they could carry away, 
over to Vermont. They left their stores arid baggage at White- 
hall, and took a roundabout way to Fort Edward, to join Schuyler 
there. But Burgoyne's army was on their track. They followed 
and captured the goods left at Whitehall. Then General Frazer, 
one of the ablest British generals, and some Germans, under the 
Hessian General Ridesel, went in pursuit. They caught the Amer- 
icans at Hubbardston, Vermont, where brave Seth Warner turned 
and gave battle. There the Americans were badly beaten. 

In the loss of Ticonderoga, tlie stores at Whitehall, and the men 
at Hubbardston, the campaign had opened brilliantly for Burgoyne, 
and he felt jubilant. There were many in the American camp 
who complained that Schuyler did not reinforce Ticonderoga, and 
grumbled that St. Clair did not strike a blow in its defense. 
There were whispers that traitors were in our midst. One absurd 
report was circulated that Schuyler and St. Clair were in league 
with the British, and were paid for treason by silver balls shot into 
the camp from British guns. 

In the mean time St. Leger and his army moved on toward Stan- 
wix. The " Johnson Greens " had joined them, and Brant with his 
savages howled and war-whooped in their rear. 

The patriots were also up in arms in all the country about Fort 
Stanwix, and were prepared to help the little garrison inside. 
Colonel Gansevoort held the fort, with seven hundred and fifty 



BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. 235 

men, find General Herkimer had raised a company of about eight 
hundred mihtia to aid in defending it outside the walls. The 
Indians, skillful in that kind of warfare, united with the Tories and 
British in a close ambuscade, from which they fell suddenly on Gen- 
eral Herkimer as he approached the fort. There was a bloody fight, 
in which Herkimer, brave old fellow, fought like a tiger. He was 
shot in both legs, mortally wounded, but, like brave Witherington 
in " Chevy Chase," who, — 

" When his legs were cut in two 
He fought upon his stumps," 

so Herkimer, sitting down on a log, waved his men on to battle, and 
holding a rifle, fired as long as his hand could pull a trigger. It 
ended in triumph for the Americans, — a dearly bought triumph, 
for they left more than half their men on the field, scalped and 
mutilated by the savages in St. Leger's army. 

The deeds of the Indians, and their employment by Burgoyne, 
fired all the Americans with increased indignation and resolve not 
to yield. Every day there was a new story told of Indian barbarity. 
Even the British could not securely trust their savage allies. An 
officer among tlie Tories sent a party of Indians to escort a young 
girl named Jane McCrea, to whom he was engaged in marriage, 
within the British lines. On the way the Indians fell to quarreling 
over the reward they were to receive, and, in the melee, killed the 
girl, and bore her scalp away, leaving her mutilated body in the 
road. This outrage, committed almost in the sight of her neighbors 
and friends, filled the whole country with horror, and General Bur- 
goyne was called upon to declare that it was a horrible mistake. 

Schuyler worked bravely to defend the Hudson, filling up the 
river with all the means he could devise, in order to render it 
impassable b}^ British ships, and obstructing Burgoyne's marches 
wherever he could do so with safety. Still there had been much 
grumbling against him ever since the fall of Ticonderoga. Rein- 
forcements had poured in rapidly at Fort Edward, and he now had 
a large army there. After the battle at Fort Stanwix, Gansevoort 
sent messengers begging reinforcements. When Schuyler talked of 
sending them, there were murmurs all around him of discontent. 
" He wants to deplete the army." The general was smoking at 
the time, and he was so angry that he bit the stem of his clay 
pipe to pieces in his mouth, in the effort to restrain his temper. '* I 



236 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



take all responsibility upon myself, gentlemen," said he. " Who 

will volunteer to command 
the relief to Stanwix. / 
shall send it to-morrow.''^ 
On this, Benedict Arnold 
started to his feet, and vol- 
unteered to command. 

Arnold was as crafty as 
he was brave. When he 
was nearing the British 
under St. Leger, he sent a 
man on ahead with several 
bullet holes in his clothes, 
who entered the enemy's 
camp as a deserter, and 
gave such an account of 
the great army coming on, 
that St. Leger was fright- 
ened, and the Indians, 
who had begun to show 
P' signs of flagging bravery 
// ever since the fight with 
Herkimer, nearly all took 
to their heels. 

The British army began 
a rapid retreat. Arnold went on unmolested, left his reinforcements 
at Stanwix, and returned to Schuyler, after taking a quantity of 
tents and baggage that St. Leger had left in his flight. 

While Arnold was gone, Schuyler had moved his army from Fort 
Edward and taken up a position on the left bank of the Hudson, 
near the- village of Stillwater. Burgoyne was trying all this time 
to bring stores and provisions for his army down to the river from 
Lake George. After working fifteen days he found he *had only 
succeeded in bringing provisions for four days eighteen miles, so 
effectually had General Schuyler blocked up roads and impeded his 
progress. To rest a little from his labors and see if he could not 
draw some aid from the enemy's country, Burgovne sent out a de- 
tachment of his Germans under General Baum, to take some Ameri- 
can stores at Bennington. The Germans marched on to Benning- 
ton, where General John Stark had just arrived with a company of 
his New Hampshire mihtia. 




BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. 237 

When Stark saw them coming he made a short speech to his sol- 
diers, which was as good as vohimes of words. " There they are, 
boys," he shonted, pointing to the British. "■ We shall beat them 
to-night, or to-morrow morning Molly Stark will be a widow." 

They did beat them and drove them back toward the Hudson. 
On their retreat the British met a new supply of their troops under 
General Breyman, and turned back to renew the battle. Fortu- 
nately for the Americans, Seth Warner and his " Green Mountain 
Boys " had joined Stark by this time, and they sent the redcoats 
back again. In the battle the men took several brass cannon. 
They did not know how to load cannon, and could not use them till 
Stark rode up and showed them how. For men who did not know 
enough of arms to load a cannon properly, I think they fought the 
battle of Bennington very satisfactorily. At all events, the retreat 
of St. Leger from Stanwix, and the defeat of Baum at Bennington, 
was a great aid to the American cause. 

Just at this time Schuyler was 'superseded in command by General 
Horatio Gates. It was a severe blow to Schuyler after all his plans 
were laid for the campaign, but he gave up with much grace, and 
cheerfully did all in his power to help the cause of the country in 
the region of his former command. 

About the middle of September the two armies of the North were 
very near each other, waiting to give battle. Burgoyne was on the 
heights of Saratoga, Gates was on some 
heights just back of an old tavern known as 
'•' Bemis's Inn," and held a strongly fortified 
place there overlooking a flat country, and 
commanding the road up and down the river. 
On the 19th of September both armies came 
outside their lines, and met in a bloody battle 
near the village of Stillwater, which lasted 
several hours without any marked result on 
either side. Again the armies retired inside 

their lines and awaited battle till the 7th of October. On that day 
they met again in almost the same place as before. It was about 
three o'clock in the afternoon when the battle began, and they 
fought until darkness put an end to the affray. General Frazer, 
Burgoyne's favorite general, was shot through the body and carried 
dying off the field. General Breyman was slain, and several other 
British officers were fatally wounded. General^ Benedict Arnold, 




238 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

who since his return from Fort Stanwix had quarreled with Gates, 
was wounded in one leg. General Gates had given him no special 
command, which had added to Arnold's anger, and all day long he 
fought like a madman, rushing in wherever the fight was thickest, 
and seizing a loaded rifle from any private soldier who was near 
him, that he might deliberately pick off one of the foes. It was an 
additional source of complaint to Arnold that Gates did not speak 
of his bravery in his report to Congress of the victory which was 
gained that day. 

General Frazer asked that he might be buried in the trenches 
where he had been shot ; and the day after the battle the chaplain of 
Burgoyne's army read the service for the dead over the body of the 
general as it was lowered into the trenches from which he had rid- 
den to his death. General Gates saw the enemy in their intrench- 
ments, and unaware that they were burying the dead, he kept up a 
constant fire from the cannon. General Frazer was buried, as he 
had lived and died, amid the roar of artillery. 

This battle had broken Burgoyne's strength. The Americans 
were in large force, and flushed with victory. The British were 
discouraged, and anxious to give up. The two generals began 
to correspond on the terms of surrender, and it was finally agreed 
that Burgoyne's army should lay down their arms and march to 
Boston, to be sent from that city to Europe under a promise to 
fight no more in this war. 

On the 17th of October Burgoyne's army marched silently out of 
their camp and stacked their guns on the fields of Saratoga. The 
American army were nowhere in sight. Their general had generously 
forbidden them to look on the humiliation of their beaten enemies. 

When Burgoyne and Gates met after the surrender, the British 
general drew his sword and handed it politely to Gates, while with 
the other hand he gracefully lifted his hat, saying, " The fortunes of 
war, general, have made me your prisoner." 

" I shall always be glad to testify that it was through no fault of 
your excellency," answered General Gates with equal politeness, and 
after this exchange of civilities the two gentlemen went off to dine 
together. 

So ended Burgoyne's campaign. He was much blamed in Eng- 
land, poor man, and sought solace in writing more comedies, but he 
always afterwards opposed the war against America. 

You must fancy the great joy in this country at this surrender. 



THE YP:AK 1778. 239 

Sir Henry Clinton, who had got up the Hudson as far as Haverstraw, 
and taken two forts there, retreated to New York. The Hudson 
River was ours, and in spite of the gloom around him, the heart of 
Washington was cheered by the glorious neios from the North. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 



THE YEAR 1778. 



Gayeties in Pliiladelphia.— The Terrible Winter at Valley Forge. - Story of Washington and the 
Farmer. — Molly Pitcher at Monmouth. — Philadelphia ours once more. — The Wyoming 
Massacre. — Tories and Indians. — Atrocities of the Wyoming Attack. — End of the Year. 

In the winter of 1777-78 the armies of America and Great 
Britain lay only twenty miles apart. The army of redcoats with 
their commander-in-chief, General Howe, were quartered in the city 
of Philadelphia, the pleasantest city in America. There they lived 
in fine houses, ministered to by the Tory citizens, who hoped to see 
the British arms successful, and did all in their power to make the 
city agreeable for its officers and men. There were balls, dinner 
parties, and all sorts of festivities. Once they held a grand tourna- 
ment, in which the officers wore the favorite colors of fair ladies on 
their shields, and the ladies crowned their favorite knights with 
garlands. The array of beauty and gorgeous dresses seen at this 
mock tournament rivaled the old days of knighthood and chivalry. 
So from the city, all winter long, rose the sounds of feasting and 
merry-making, and there, in inglorious ease, reposed the British 
commander and his men. 

Twenty miles away, in a rocky, desolate, mountain gorge known' 
as Valley Forge, Washington had led his army from White Marsh. 
When he went there, in bitter December weather, his men, shoeless 
and almost naked, had marked their way with blood from their bare 
feet. They reached the valley, and for want of tents were obliged 
to cut down trees and build huts of logs for shelter from the cold. 
Congress had no money to pay the men, no money to buy them 
food. For days and days together, during this winter, they had no 
bread and lived upon salt pork alone. They sickened with hunger 
and cold, and there was no money to buy medicines, no comfortable 
hospitals where they could be nursed. They were ragged and 
Avithout shoes. Some comrades had but one suit of clothes between 
them, and while one went out to parade, the other would lie shiver- 

16 



240 STORY OF OUR COtTNTRV. 

ing with a single blanket wrapped about him. Ah, my children, 
liberty was dearly bought in this country. It cost many lives that 
winter, and left many homes desolate and mourning. We should 
never forget the men who died there at Valley Forge. 

These were hard days for Washington, too, and his heart must 
often have felt very heavy. He knew there were many who mur- 
mured against him because he had not been more successful and 
won more brilliant victories. He saw his men naked, starving, 
freezing with cold, and burning with malarious fevers. Once the 
rude Pennsylvania farmer with whom he lodged, went to his door 
to speak with the commander-in-chief. He heard his voice in 
earnest entreaty, and stopped to listen. Washington was alone, 
praying to God for succor for his poor soldiers, and the success of 
American liberties. The farmer stole softly awa}^ and. went down- 
stairs to his wife. " If God ever hears any prayers," he said, while 
he wiped away the tears which were rolling down his cheeks, " he 
will hear George Washington." 

The long winter, a bitterW cold winter, at last passed away. 
New England sent money and provisions for their relief, and with 
the first breath of spring came cheering news. France acknowl- 
edged the United States as a nation, and had given notice to Eng- 
land of her intention to treat her as such. For almost two years, 
Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, had been in 
France, trying to get the king to lend a helping hand in America. 
The news of Burgoyne's surrender had decided France, and tidings 
came to Congress that ships and soldiers and money would soon 
reach the struggling colonies. There was universal gladness, and a 
bond of friendship was knit between France and this country which 
has never been broken from that day to this. 

Howe's stay in Philadelphia did not end quite so pleasantly for 
him. Benjamin Franklin said shrewdly, " Howe has not taken 
Philadelphia ; Philadelphia has taken him." He had so indolent 
a time there that the British government began to mistrust his 
desire to do anything but dance and eat good dinners, and sent Sir 
Henry Clinton to take his command away from him. In June the 
whole army moved out of Philadelphia, and then Washington, 
whose men were now clothed and comfortable, broke up his camp, 
and went to give them battle. 

The two armies met at Monmouth, and fought from sunrise to 
sunset, a ghastly, bloody fight. It was the hottest day in the year, 



THE YEAR 1778. 241 

and men were constantly dropping down in the ranks from sun- 
stroke. During the battle, one of the gunners, a man named 
Pitcher, was shot at his gun. His wife, who had followed him 
from their home to the camp, and from camp to the battle-field, 
stepped forward and took his place, firing the cannon with the skill 
and rapidity of a soldier. She was always called after that, " Cap- 
tain Molly Pitcher." 

When night came, the Americans lay down in their clothes upon 
the field, with guns in baud, ready to begin again next morning. 
But at daybreak the British had fled and were on their way to New 
York city. Washington followed to White Plains, and set up his 
tents there on the very spot from which he had been driven two 
years before. 

So Philadelphia was oui's once more. Washington left General 
Benedict Arnold there to hold the city, because his wounded leg 
still troubled him, and he was not fit for active service. Arnold 
was very angry that his valor had not been more fully recognized, 
and very bitter against General Gates, who, he said, had wronged 
him at Saratoga. But Washington seems to have prized his ser- 
vices. I am very sorry that he gave him the command at Phila- 
delphia, however. Because he got acquainted with many wealthy 
Tories there, and married very soon, a beautiful, accomplished Tory 
girl, who had been one of the belles in the festivities which General 
Howe kept up in Philadelphia. General Arnold would better have 
married a poor, plain, uneducated, loyal-hearted girl in his own 
native Rhode Island, than this handsome Tory, who wrote gay and 
delightful letters to several British officers in Howe's army. 

In July Count D'Estaing came from France with twelve ships, 
ammunition, men, and money. England be- 
gan to be anxious. She was ready to repeal 
her tax laws now, if her children would return 
to their allegiance. But they had already 
tasted freedom ; they would listen to no offers. 
Some British commissaries tried to bribe loyal 
Americans to betray their country. But as 
one of them (General Reed of Philadelphia) 
said, "I am not worth buying, but such as I count OEstaing. 

am, the King of England is not rich enough to do it." So all the 
patriots felt at heart. 

The saddest event of this year was known as " The Wyoming 




242 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Massaci'e,"* a story which has been told since in many a poet's 
verse.^ 

The Wyoming Valley was a strip of green meadow land, border- 
ing the Susquehanna River, inclosed on all sides by steep and 
rugged mountains. Here many Connecticut families had settled, 
and their pleasant farms and comfortable farm-houses formed a 
peaceful little Arcadia. The Wyoming settlers were very loyal, 
and nearly every family had a husband or son in the patriot army. 
But the country about swarmed with Tories, and there was the 
bitterest ill-feeling between the Tories and patriots there. 

One summer evening (June, 1778), about eleven hundred men, 
six hundred of whom were Indians, swept down upon the lovely 
valley. The frightened people, largely women and children, hud- 
dled together in Fort Forty, the safest stronghold in the event of a 
siege. Fortunately, a brave soldier in the Continental army. Colo- 
nel Zebulon Butler, one of the Connecticut settlers, was at home in 
the valley on a furlough. To him the command of the little army 
of defense was given. He mustered a small band, principally old 
men and boys, numbering in all, hardly more than one fifth of the 
enemy. It was decided that their only hope was in meeting their 
foes upon the open field, and accordingly they left the walls of the 
fort and what poor protection they afforded, and went bravely out 
to await the fate of battle. The Tories and Indians were com- 
manded by Colonel John Butler of the " Johnson Greens," who 
had fought at Fort Stanwix when Herkimer was killed. They 
were a savage band ; the Tories nearly all native Americans, and 
hardly less bloodthirsty than their Indian allies. The patriots made 
a brave but hopeless defense. When at last overpowered by such 
numbers, they gave way, they were pursued with horrible fury, and 
the conquerors showed no mercy. Many tried to escape by swim- 
ming the river, or hiding in the branches of the trees which over- 
hung the water, but the Indians pursued with their wild war-whoops, 
and hacked them to pieces with knives and tomahawks. Every 
painted warrior bore scalps at his girdle, torn from the heads of old 
men, women, and children. Some of the captives were roasted in 
slow fires, some had their brains dashed out wth clubs. In the 
flesh of some they stuck splinters of pine, and then set them on fire. 
Others they threw into the flames and held them there with pitchforks 

1 The Englisli poet Campbell celebrates this massacre in his famous poem, Gertrude of 
Wyoming 



SAVANNAH AND STONY POINT. 243 

till tliey were consumed. Friend murdered his friend, and brother 
slaughtered brother, in this hideous affray. Glutted with blood, the 
conquerors came to demand the sui-render of Fort Forty, which was 
given up to them without resistance. The miserable little handful 
of women and children, widows and orphans of those they had just 
destroyed, left the fort, and wandered out without food, almost with- 
out clothing, into the wilderness. A part of them made their waj 
to some distant settlements, but many perished on the road from 
hunger and exhaustion. Their track through the wilderness is 
known to this day as " The Shades of Death." 

After this conquest, the cruel hordes of Butler devastated the 
whole region of western Pennsylvania, and all summer tales of 
their brutality startled the whole land. 

The rest of the year 1778 was not marked by any notable event. 
Washington remained that fall and winter in New Jersey. Count 
D'Estaing, with his French fleet, went to the British islands in the 
West Indies, to worry the enemy there. Sir Heni-y Clinton sent a 
large force to Georgia, the youngest and weakest of all the colonies, 
and they took the town of Savannah, and held it till the war ended. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

SAVANNAH AND STONY POINT. 

Continental Money. — Lincoln and Count D'Estaing at Savannaii. — Defeat to the Ameri- 
cans. — Mad Anthony Wayne. — The Forlorn Hope. — Taking of Stony Point. 

One of the greatest troubles which beset the American Congress 
in carrying on this revolutionary war, Avas the want of money. This 
pressing need forced them to issue paper money to supply the place 
of the gold and silver which was lacking,' and as paper money is 
not worth anything unless people are sure there is enough gold and 
silver so]newliere to take its place, this American or Continental 
money was worth less and less, as Congress grew poorer and poorer, 
till finally forty dollars of it was hardly worth one dollar in gold. 
In South Carolina, it was said, it took seven hundred dollars to buy 
a pair of shoes. The soldiers were paid with this money, and their 
pay would not keep their families in salt. By the way, salt was very 
dear, and became as much of a luxury as tea or sugar. So you can 
see the worthlessness of the " Continental money," as it was called, 
caused much fyrumblin<T and discontent. 



244 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

I told yon, in the last chapter, that the British had concentrated a 
large force in Georgia. Colonel Cami^bell and General Prevost 
were the British commanders there, and General Lincoln of Massa- 
chusetts commanded our Southern army. There was constant man- 
oeuvring on the part of the British to hold Georgia and the Carolinas, 
and on the part of Lincoln to drive them out. They tried to take 
Charleston once, but Lincoln's troops made a gallant resistance, 
aided by brave General Moultrie, who had been at the first siege of 
Charleston, and was there to help them. So the redcoats did not 
get Charleston, but retired to Savannah again. At length, Count 
D'Estaing came up from the West Indies and joined' Lincoln, and 
they decided to lay siege to Savannah. 

You know something about a siege, I presume, and I have no 
doubt you have read about the siege of Troy, which lasted ten years, 
and ended by getting a great wooden horse, filled with soldiers, 
inside the Trojan walls. This siege of Savannah lasted nearly a 
month. The French and the Americans were posted on all sides of 
the city, and kept perpetually firing inside the fortifications which 
surrounded it. Inside the town, the people had to hide in cellars, 
and throw up banks of sand round their houses to keep out of the 
way of bomb-shell and cannon-shot. After a number of days of this 
kind of warfare, Lincoln made an assault on the town, and was 
beaten back with terrible slaughter of his men. 
The brave Count Pulaski, the noble Pole who 
was here helping in our battles, lost his life 
in this fearful assault at Savannah. Sergeant 
Jasper, the one who saved the flag at Charles- 
ton by jumping over the wall after it, was here 
killed. He died, grasping a flag which had 
been given his regiment by some patriotic 
Count Pulaski. women, saying, "Tell the ladies of Charleston 

I preserved their flag unharmed." 

This fight at Savannah ended in triumph for the British and 
was the last attempt of the Americans for the present to recover 
Georgia. 

In the North, Tryon was ravaging Connecticut, burning towns, 
trampling down the growing harvests, and insulting the people by 
all kinds of brutality. On the Hudson River General Clinton was 
harassing Washington's army which had spent the winter in New 
Jersey, and Avas now trying to guard the Hudson. The Americans 




THE YEAR 1778. 245 

had built some very good forts at West Point, — now tlie great 
military school of our nation. But the British had two fortified 
places on the Hudson — Verplanck's Point and Stony Point — 
nearly opposite each other on the river. 

In July Washington planned the taking of Stony Point. He 
selected General Anthony Wayne, whom the soldiers called " Mad 
Anthony " because he was so recklessly brave. Wayne went up 
the river secretly and divided his army into two columns, to attack 
each side of the fort at once. Each column was led by a " forlorn 
hope" of twenty men. Do you know what a " forlorn hope " 
means ? It is a small party of men appointed to go first in a very 
dangerous attack, where there is little chance that any will be left 
alive. When Wayne called for volunteers to join the " forlorn 
hope " to lead his two attacking columns, so many men came for- 
ward to go that it was difficult to choose from among them. 

The columns came in upon the fort from south and north, and so 
quick and sudden was the attack that the fort was taken in hardly 
less time than it takes to tell it, and the two parts of Wayne's army 
met almost exactly in the middle of the fortress. Of one " forlorn 
hope " only five men remained, and the other was almost as badly 
cut to pieces. Yet it was a glorious victory, and Wayne took many 
prisoners, and cannon, powder, flags, and other trophies of war. 
Unfortunately Washington was not strong enough to hold the fort, 
but was obliged to order Wayne to take away his spoils and desert 
the Point. 

Away in the west General Sullivan was paying the Indians and 
Tories in their own coin by burning the towns and ravaging the 
country which the Indians had ravaged before. On the extreme 
western border, now the State of Indiana, and then called tlie 
" country of the Illinois," General George Rogers Clarke had waded 
through the swamp lands and crossed the rivers to hang the Ameri- 
can flag over Fort Vincennes, built years before by the French. 
The war was spreading out in wider and widei'^ circles, and the end 
of it seemed farther and farther away. 



246 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 

Privateers. — Daring Adventure of John Paul Jones. — The Bon Homme Richard. — Fight 
with the Serapis. — The Ships tied together. — Victory. 

As yet you have heard nothing of any battles on the sea. It 
would seem almost absurd for these poor colonies to meet England 
in her own domain of the ocean, — England who had so long claimed 

to be the mistress of the 
seas. Yet as early as 
1775 Congress had or- 
dered a small fleet to be 
fitted out as the begin- 
ning of an American 
navy, and had appointed 
Esek Hopkins as its com- 
mander. Up to the fall 
of 1779, however, nearly 
all the naval enterprises 
had been undertaken by 
" privateers," which since 
the beginning of the war 
had swarmed in Boston 
harbor and the neighbor- 
ing sea-coasts. These pri- 
vateers were ships fitted 
out by private individ- 
uals, who obtained a com- 
mission from the govern- 
ment to capture any of 
the enemy's ships which 
they were strong enough to take. There were a good many Amer- 
ican privateers fitted out which had done more or less service, though 
the British declared they were piratical craft and their captains and 
men were no better than pirates. 

One of the commanders of the vessels in this weak and puny 
American navy was Captain John Paul Jones. Jones was a native 
of England, but he had lived for years m Virginia, owned an estate 
there, and was an American in heart and soul. He was as daring 






aiiiiwt 



JOHN PAUL JONES. 249 

as any hero of romance, and his adventures are as various and as 
strange as those of Roderick Random or Masterman Ready. He 
had actually sailed over to the enemy's country, landed on the coast 
of England at Whitehaven, spiked all the cannon in the fort while 
the town was asleep, and then set fire to the ships in the harbor, 
and gone quietly on board his vessel, before the terrified inhabitants 
could rub open their sleepy eyes and see that it was only one poor 
little vessel with a handful of men, wlio had done all tliis. 'After 
this adventure, he went to France, and with Benjamin Franklin's 
aid and influence finally got a good-sized ship, which he called the 
Bon Homme Michard (Good Man Richard), after Dr. Franklin's 
" Poor Richard's Maxims," which I am sure you have often heard 
quoted. 

John Paul sailed with "Good Man Richard" to the coast of Eng- 
land bordering on the North Sea. Cruising about near the harbor 
of Scarborough in Yorkshire County, he saw a fleet of ships just 
setting to sea under the protection of two English men-of-war. The 
largest of these ships was the Serapis, with forty-four guns, splen- 
didly manned and every way the better of John Paul's ship. He 
did not hesitate on that account, but challenged her at once to battle. 
The English captain was so certain of victory that when he had 
fired one or two broadsides at " Good Man Richard," he inquired of 
her commander if he was ready to pull down his colors. " I have 
not yet begun to fight," answered John Paul coolly. 

The two ships were then so close together that the bowsprit of 
the Serapis came over the side so that it nearly touched the miz- 
zen-mast of the Bo7i Homme Richard. John Paul saw his oppor- 
tunity, and before the 9aptain could disentangle the two ships 
he seized a rope and with his own hands tied the ships together. 
There, lashed side by side, with the mouths of the cannon from each 
vessel belching into each other their terrible volley, ensued one of 
the most desperate fights in the history of sea battles. It lasted 
about two hours and a half, when the Englisli captain went aloft and 
hauled down his colors with his own hand. Not one of his men 
was brave enough to venture on deck on such an errand. When 
the fight was over, John Paul's vessel was sinking, and her master 
and his crew were obliged to leave her and take refuge in the con- 
quered ship. "Next day," saj^s John Paul in his account of it, "I 
saw it was impossible to save the good old ship from sinking. We 
did not abandon her till nine in the morning. The water was then 



250 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

lip to the lower deck, and a little after ten I saw, with inexpressi- 
ble grief, the last glimpse of the Bon Homme Richard.'''' 

The fight with the Serapis filled all Europe with surprise, and 
John Paul Jones was the hero of the hour. The fact that an Eng- 
lish ship could be beaten in fair battle was proved, and was Jiailed 
as a good omen in America. Of all the events of the year 1779 it 
was the most brilliant, and excited most wonder. 



CHAPTER XL VII. 

EVENTS DURING 1779. 



Discontent in the Army. — Flogging of Soldiers. — Taking of Charleston by the British. — 
Tarlton's Quarter. — General Marion's Militia. — Story of Marion and tiie British Officer. — 
Count Rochambeau in Rhode Island. 

Another winter of cold and discontent in Washington's army- 
stationed at Morristown. The winter was terribly severe, and in 
their miserable quarters the men huddled together at night on 
piles of straw, keeping themselves from freezing by the heat from 
the close contact of their bodies. Heavy snow-storms often cut off 
their supplies, and they were frequently a week without a mouthful 
of meat, and sometimes as long without bread. The soldiers, paid 
in Continental money, were discontented with this kind of reward for 
their services. They grumbled loudl}^ at having nothing but this 
worthless paper to send home to their families, whom they knew 
were often without the common necessaries of life. When their pay 
was given them, they said, as they looked scornfully at the crisp new 
paper which the Continental Congress had issued, " A hat full .of 
this stuff would not buy our families one bushel of salt." 

There were many signs of mutiny, and only the utmost care and 
judicious management of Washington prevented a serious outbreak 
in his army. Many of the soldiers, contrary to orders, would steal 
from camp to take sheep, pigs, and poultry, from the farmers in the 
country round about. Many a poor fellow had to be flogged for 
this offense (for the discipline of the army must be maintained), and 
it was said Washington would always take care to have the punish- 
ment inflicted as far as possible from his quarters, that he might not 
be pained by witnessing it. The soldiers would bear the whipping 
with great fortitude, and devised a means to endure the pain with- 



EVENTS DURING 1779. 251 

out uttering any outcry. They would take a leaden bullet between 
the teeth, and chew on it while the lash fell on their naked backs. 
After the punishment was over they would often spit the bullet 
from their mouths all flattened out, and showing as plainly the 
impression of the teeth as if it had been rubber. 

Yet although tlie soldiers Avere often hungry and very ragged, the 
army managed to tiirn out and make a tolerable appearance when- 
ever Washington had any distinguished foreign guest, and a " dress 
review " was ordered. Washington had very efficient help at this 
time in disciplining the army, in tlie person of Baron Steuben, a 
splendid soldier, who had been an aide-de-camp in the army of Fred- 
erick the Great of Prussia, who you know had the finest soldiers in 
the world. There was no better order in the American army than 
in the regiments which Baron Steuben drilled. Perfect order and 
perfect silence prevailed in the parades of his soldiers. Every man's 
gun was examined, and if it was dirty or out of order, off the man 
went to the guard-house. If clean, and ready for use at a seconds 
notice, the soldier had a reward in money from his commander. 
There were few among those foreign officers who came to aid us, 
more efficient than Baron Steuben. 

During the winter General Clinton, who still held New York 
firmly in his grasp, and who felt sure Washington was not in a con- 
dition to make any attempt to retake the city, sailed with a fleet to 
Charleston, South Carolina, to take that town. His southern army 
held Savannah, and if they could take Charleston, he believed that 
Georgia and the Carolinas would be entirely subdued to British 
power. General Lincoln, who commanded our southern troops, was 
a brave man and a good soldier, but he always fought with' the odds 
against him. He managed to muster about 3,000 men inside the 
city of Charleston for its defense, and he hoped to get more forces 
before Clinton could entirely surround the city. But he hoped in 
vain. The British ships entered Charleston harbor boldly, and 
after a siege of a month, Lincoln was forced to surrender. There 
were many Tories in South Carolina as well as many patriots, and 
Clinton took counsel of the Tories, who of course were very bitter 
against the Whigs, and advised him to issue a severe proclamation, 
threatening all the people who did not at once prove themselves 
loyal to the British king. The South Carolina militia began to re- 
treat to the mountains of North Carolina, to get out of the way of 
their conquerors. One of the British officers, Colonel Tarleton, 



252 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



was sent to pursue them, and falling in with a band who were re- 
treating, he attacked them and cut them to pieces without mercy. It 
was reported that he spurred on his soldiers after the jnilitia had laid 
down their arms and asked for quarter, — and " Tarleton's quarter " 
afterwards was understood to mean the most unrelenting barbarity. 

After the taking of Charleston, two brave soldiers in the Carolinas 
carried on unceasing war against the Tories. These were General 
Francis Marion and General Thomas Sumter, both natives of South 
Carolina. General Marion had been in the siege, but had left the 
city just before it surrendered and escaped capture. The two gen- 
erals had raised an army of men from among the patriot farmers 
and hunters in the interior. They were a motley crew, without uni- 
forms and almost without arms. Yet for months they were the only 
representatives of the American cause in the South, and by ha- 
rassing the Tories, making 
frequent descents on Brit" 
ish outposts, and capturing 
now and then a few prison- 
ers and a stand of arms, they 
kept liberty alive. At one 
time Marion had a camp 
upon Snow's Island, an in- 
accessible spot, in the cen- 
tre of swamps and tangled 
forests. Here with his men 
he slept on the ground with- 
out a blanket, and marched 
bareheaded in the sun, for 
want of a hat. A British 
officer was marched into 
this retreat, blindfolded, in 
order to talk with Marion 
about the exchange of some 
prisoners. 

Marion invited him to 
dinner, and when it was 
reported ready, the young 
officer, fresh from the lux- 
urious fare of the English 
mess-rooms, saw a pine log for a table, and some roasted sweet 
potatoes for the sole dish. 




TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 253 

" Is this all you have for dinner ? " he asked, in astonishment. 
" This is all," answered General Marion, " and we thought ourselves 
fortunate in having more potatoes than usual, when we had a guest 
to dine with us." 

" You must have excellent j)ay to console you for such living," 
said the officer. 

" On the contrary," answered Marion, " I have never received 
a dollar, nor have one of my men." 

" What on earth are you fighting for ? " 

"For the love of liberty," answered the hero. The story relates 
that the young officer went back to Charleston and resigned his 
position in the English army, saying he would not fight against 
men who fought from such motives, and endured such hardships. I 
hope the story is true, it is such an excellent one. 

In the mean time, at the North, there had been some skirmish- 
ing, and many houses and towns plundered in New York and New 
Jersey, but no serious fighting. During the sj^ring Lafayette re- 
turned from France with news of more help on the way to America. 
The Count de Rochambeau soon followed him with several ships 
and an army of 6,000 men. They took up quarters in Newport, 
Rhode Island. 

In September Washington went to Connecticut to confer with the 
Count, and while here a treason to the American cause was discov- 
ered, which if it had been successful might have been the death-blow 
to liberty in this country. But the account of this treason must 
have place in a fresh chapter. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

West Point. — Gustavus, and John Anderson. —Capture of Colonel Andre. —Escape of Bene- 
dict Arnold. — Andr6 condemned to be hanged. — His Letter to Washington. — Plft to save 
Andre. — Feigned Desertion of Champe. — The Execution of Andre. — Failure of Champe's 
Enterprise and his Return. 

We left General Benedict Arnold in command of the forces sta- 
tioned in Philadelphia after Howe's evacuation. He had lived a 
gay life in the Quaker city, getting badly in debt there, and grow- 
ing every day on worse terms with himself and his brother generals 
in the American army. In the summer he asked Washington for a 



254 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




more active command, and Washington gave him West Point for 

his post of duty. 

West Point was the 
most important post 
in our possession. It 
was the stronghold 
which guarded the 
Hudson, and kept the 
British from their 
darhng project of cut- 
ting off New York 
from New England. 
Therefore in sending 
Arnold to command 
there, Washington 
gave him a great trust 
to hold. 

But Arnold was a 
bad-hearted man, ca- 
pable of betrajang 
trust. He had at that 
very time planned to 
sell himself to the Brit- 
ish, and had named the price at which he could be bought. He 
asked £10,000 in English gold, and a commission in the royal 
army, and Sir Henry Clinton had offered to pay it to him. 

I have told you Arnold's wife was a Tory, who was living in Phil- 
adelphia when Howe was there. It is said that she wrote letters at 
intervals to her acquaintances in the British army, among whom was 
young Major Andre, an adjutant-general of General Clinton. It 
may have been in this way that Arnold first came into correspond- 
ence with Major Andre. At any rate, for some time they ex- 
changed letters, which were signed " Gustavus " by Arnold, and 
"John Anderson " by Andre. 

In September General Clinton sent Major Andre to West Point 
to visit Arnold, and arrange definitely for the betrayal of that 
post into his hands. Andre went up in a British vessel named the 
Vulture, and was carried on shore in a boat to a house inside the 
American lines. There Arnold met him, and the matter was fully 
discussed. The next day when Andre wished to rejoin his vessel 




,^<^^^^.^^:^ 




TKEASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



255 




Major Andre. 



he found it had gone down the river. Some patriots had seen it 

there, and suspecting it to be an Enghsh 

vessel, they had dragged an old cannon to 

the river bank, firing directly into the Vul- 

ture, till they had obliged the captain to 

hoist anchor and sail toward New York. 

Andre was forced to cross the river and 
go by horse- to New York city. Arnold 
gave him a pass, and a disguise in place 
of his uniform as an English officer, and 
thus provided, he crossed the river just 
below West Point. 

He had passed the American lines, and 
had reached Tarrytown on the Hudson. 
Before night-fall he would be in the camp at New York, and the 
plan for the surrender would be in Clinton's hands. Almost free 
from apprehension of danger, he rode on. Suddenly three men 
appeared in his path. Without producing his pass, he asked them, 
" Where do you belong." 

" Down below," answered one. " Down below " meant New 
York, and Andfe was thrown off his guard by the answer. " I 
belong there also," he said. " I am a British officer on important 
business. Do not detain me." 

" Then you are our prisoner," answered the men. 

Andre then produced his pass, but as by his own confession he 
was a British officer, it availed nothing. He offered his watch, his 
purse, and more valuable than either, he offered to deliver to them 
next day a cargo of English dry goods if they would let him pass. 
They were unmoved by his bribes, and already had begun to search 
him. They searched pockets, saddle-bags, his hat. They even 
ripped open the linings of his coat. The prisoner stood nearly naked 
in the road, yet no paper had been found. At length they pulled 
off his boots. His boots were empty ; but they heard the rustle 
of paper when they were drawn off. The stockings came last, 
and in his stockings, under the soles of his feet, were found, in Ar- 
nold's handwriting, the treasonable papers, with a plan of the fort, 
mode of entrance, and everything to facilitate its surrender to 
Clinton. 

The three men (their names were John Paulding, David Will- 
iams, and Isaac Van Wert) took their prisoner and the papers to 
]7 



256 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the nearest officer, Colonel Jameson, and gave him up. Andre 
asked one favor of Colonel Jameson, that he might write a brief 
note to Arnold, and Jameson, not understanding the importance of 
the capture, granted his request. Andre wrote, " John Anderson 
has been taken on his way to New York," and sent this warning 
by a speed}^ messenger." 

The note reached Arnold in time. Washington had met Rocham- 
beau in Hartford, had finished his talk with him, and* was on his 
way to West Point. At any moment Arnold might see him enter 
his head-quarters. He hurriedly made all his preparations for escape, 
mounted his horse, and rode to the nearest boat-landing, plunging 
down a steep and almost impassable precipice to reach it. This 
precipice was afterwards named " The Traitor's Hill." At the 
landing he took boat, and tying his white handkerchief to a stick, 
waved it aloft that he might not be fired on hj the guns of the fort, 
and was rowed safely to the Vulture. Almost as soon as he reached 
that vessel, orders came from head-quarters to fire on his boat. 
Washington had arrived there and learned of his treachery. 

Arnold reached New York in safety, leaving Andrd in captivity. 
Andre was taken before the American officers and examined as a 
spy. He told the whole truth with the utmost frankness, and 
claimed that he was not a spy, that he had had no intention even 
of entering our lines, but had come up at the command of his gen- 
eral, to meet and confer with Arnold. 

Wherever he went, the young prisoner won all hearts. His 
manners were charming ; he was handsome, well educated, a clever 
artist, and gifted with some literar}^ ability. The hearts of the 
American officers with whom he was thrown in his captivity 
warmed toward him, and every one felt the deepest interest in his 
fate. But the tribunal before which he was tried, decided that he 
was a spy, and as a spy he must suffer death. 

Sir Henry Clinton made every effort to avert the sentence, but 
the judges were inexorable. It had been the previous custom in 
both armies to hang all spies, and there had been repeated execu- 
tions on both sides. When the British demanded Andre's release, 
the Americans reminded them of the fate of young Nathan Hale 
from Connecticut, who had been found inside the enemy's lines as a 
spy in 1776, and had been hanged immediately. His executioners 
had denied him even the solace of a clergyman in his last moments ; 
and when he died saying, "I regret that I have but one life to lose 



TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 257' 

for my country," they refused to send any account of his last mo- 
ments to his friends, declaring "the rebels should not know they had 
a man who could meet death so bravely." Hale's execution had 
caused great excitement in the country, then unused to the bar- 
barities which all war involves, and although many spies had since 
been hung, they remembered more vividly than any other the exe- 
cution of this promising young hero. 

When Andre, at first expecting to be released, found that he was 
to die, he prepared to meet death firmly. He said frankly that al- 
though not afraid of death, he dreaded to die like a dog, with a rope 
round his neck, and wrote the following letter to Washington : — 

" Sir : — Buoyed above the terrors of death by the consciousness 
of a life devoted to honorable pursuits, I trust that the request I 
make to your excellency at this serious period, and which is to 
soften my last moments, will not be rejected. Sympathy toward a 
soldier, will surely induce your excellency and a military tribunal, 
to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor. 
Let me hope, sir, if aught in my character impresses you with 
esteem toward me, if aught in my misfortunes marks me as the 
victim of policy, and not of resentment, I shall experience the 
operations of these feelings in your breast by being informed, I am 
not to die on a gihhet. I have the honor to be 

" Your excellency's most obedient and humble servant, 

" John Andre." 

Washington laid this letter before the military tribunal which 
had judged Andre. It was composed of some of the best American 
ofiicers, and it included also the humane Marquis de Lafayette, and 
Baron Steuben, who, though he was a graduate of the most severe 
military school of Germany, was a tender-hearted man. This tri- 
bunal thought the petition of Andre should not be granted, and 
Washington, perhaps from a repugnance to write a denial, did not 
answer the letter. 

But Washington was not a man who could remain indifi'erent to 
the fate of so noble an officer as Andre ; and while the British were 
denouncing him as a monster of cruelty, who gloated over the 
blood of his victim ; while the base traitor, Arnold, dared to write 
him an impertinent letter, threatening retaliation if Andre were not 
given up, Washington was silently maturing a plan, by which he 
hoped Andre might yet be saved. 



258 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

To save Andre, it would be necessary to substitute some one in 
his place, and so appease the demands of justice. The only man 
who could avert the doom of death from Andre, was Benedict Ar- 
nold, the man who had beti'ayed him. To seize Arnold would be 
in effect to free Andre. This was Washington's project. He took 
only Major Henry Lee into his confidence, an officer on whose pru- 
dence he knew he could rely. He asked Lee to select from among 
his soldiers one whom he could trust in a difficult and dangerous 
undertaking, and told him his desire to capture Arnold, in order 
that the gallant young Major Andre might be restored to his 
friends. 

Lee chose a man for this scheme, a brave young sergeant, named 
John Cliampe, a man reserved, vigilant, and 
intelligent, and induced him to make this 
attempt. Champe was to desert from the 
American camp, and join the British in New 
York, in such a manner as to deceive both his 
friends and enemies. After a long conference 
with Lee, Champe started with his horse, and 
made down the Hudson River road toward 
New York. The American sentinels were 
Henry Lee. tlilckly posted to prcvcut dcscrtiou, and his 

ride was a dangerous one. He had only been gone half an hour when 
a watchful officer came to I^ee's quarters with the intelligence that a 
man, most likely a deserter, had passed over the lines toward New 
York. He asked Lee for an order to send a body of mounted men 
to arrest him. Lee made all the delay he possibly could. He feared 
the brave sergeant might be killed in the pursuit, but in order to 
keep up appearances, he was obliged to send the detachment after 
him. The flight and pursuit were a hot one. Champe was in im- 
mediate danger of being taken by his fellow soldiers, when after a 
break-neck ride he reached the bank of the Hudson, where some 
British galleys lay in full sight. He leaped into the river, and 
swam for the galleys, hailing them as a deserter ; they approached, 
took him on board, and sailed with him to New York. 

Champe's comrades on the bank discharged after him their rifles, 
captured his horse, and returned sadly to camp. When Lee saw 
them approaching with tlie riderless horse, he was dumb with anxi- 
ety as to the fate of Champe, but when he learned that he was safe, 
concealed his joy, and went to report to Washington. 




TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 259 

But tlie plan failed. The action of the court was so rapid that it 
gave no time in which to carry out Arnold's capture. While Wash- 
ington and Lee were eagerly waiting news from Champe, the court 
had fixed on the immediate execution of Andre's sentence, and 
Washington was forced to consent to it. It is said that his hand 
could hardly command the pen when he signed this death warrant. 

Andre met death like a brave gentleman. He hoped to the last 
to be shot, and when he entered the field of execution and saw the 
gallows, he gave an involuntary start. " I am reconciled to death," 
he said, " but I detest the mode." 

" While waiting near the gallows,"- said an eye-witness of the 
scene, " I saw some degree of trepidation, a choking in his throat, 
as if he attempted to swallow. So soon as he perceived all things 
were ready, however, he stepped into the wagon, saying, ' It will be 
but a momentary pang,' and taking from his pocket two white hand- 
kerchiefs, the provost-marshal with one pinioned his arms, and with 
the other the victim himself bandaged his own eyes with perfect 
firmness, which melted the hearts and moistened the eyes, not only 
of his servant, but the throng of spectators. He then adjusted the 
rope to his neck without the assistance of the awkward executioner. 
Then raising the handkerchief from his eyes he said, ' I pray you to 
bear me witness, that I meet my fate like a brave man.' " Thus 
ended Major Andre's life, a tragedy which is one of the most touch- 
ing of this whole war. 

Champe in the mean time pursued the plans to take Arnold, and 
once had laid a complete plot to capture him, and deliver him into 
the hands of Lee. At the very moment it was to be carried out, 
Arnold was removed to a new command, and Champe, who was 
now acting as a deserter in the English service, was also ordered 
elsewhere. He did not rejoin the Americans for months. When 
at length he reappeared, his comrades were astonished to see Lee 
meet him with marks of warmest friendship, but after his story was 
known, the whole corps to which he belonged joined in honoring 
and admiring him. 



260 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 



DEFEAT AND VICTORY IN THE SOUTH. 

Misfortunes of Gates in South Carolina. — A Stronghold on King's Mountain. — General Greene 
takes Command. — A Ragged Army. — Victory atCowpens. — Sharp Retort of a Patriotic 
Woman. — The Bravery of South Carolina Women. 

Disaster still followed the American flag in South Carolina. 
In July, 1780, General Gates was dispatched with a large army to 
oppose Cornwallis in his victorious career there. Baron de Kalb, 
the French officer who had come to serve under Wasliington, was 
second to Gates in command. 

Since his victory over the British army in Saratoga, Gates had 
lost the modesty wliioli befits a true hero. He talked vain-gloriously 
about " Burgoyning the army of Cornwallis," believing that he need 
only to march south to swallow it up as easily as he had conquered 
Burgoyne. It was very hot weather, and his troops were many of 
them Northern men, unaccustomed to the climate. He marched 
them under the torrid suii without sufficient rest or proper food. 
Much of the time they were forced to eat green corn and vegetables 
gathered on the march. Diseases of all kinds set in, and when the 
troops reached South Carolina and encamped a few miles from Corn- 
wallis, most of them were fitter for a hospital than a battle-field. 
Gates wa-s for immediate battle, against the advice of De Kalb and 
several othei- officers. The result was, that when the battle of Cam- 
den was fought, on the 19th of August, the Americans Avere entirely 
unfit to meet the enemy. A portion of them threw down their arms 
and ffed, when they saw the British approaching with fixed bayonets 
in fierce charge. Baron de Kalb's division 
stood their ground and fought bravely but 
vainly, and the Americans suffered a bloody 
defeat. Baron de Kalb, pierced with eleven 
wounds, fell at the head of his troops. By 
the terrible ill-fortune in the battle of Camden, 
Gates lost the prestige he had gained at Sara- 
toga. He was soon after removed from his 
position, and General Greene was sent to take 
command in the South. 

Cornwallis, believing himself now secure in his hold on the South, 
sent two bodies of soldiery to scour the country, and cut off the lin- 




Baron de Kalb. 



DEFEAT AND VICTOKY IN THE SOUTH. 261 

geving remnant of the militia who were still holding out" against the 
army. One of these bands was commanded by the notorious Tarle- 
ton ; the other was under (3olonel Ferguson, a man almost as much 
hated by the patriots as Tarleton. 

Ferguson marched over the line to Georgia, where a band of the 
militia, in this darkest hoar for freedom, had taken up their stand. 
He halted on King's Mountain, a mile and a half from the Carolina 
border. Several miles below, the militia had heard of Ferguson's 
approach, and had mustered all their strength to meet him. They 
intercepted a messenger to Cornwallis bearing this dispatch : " I 
hold a position on King's Mountain that all the rebels in hell can- 
not drive me from. — Ferguson." 

Nothing daunted by this bravado, the militia marched on till they 
were m sight of the enemy's camp. There was a fierce onset, a 
fierce defense. The militia charged up the hill. The British met 
them with fixed bayonets. It was said and believed in the British 
army, that the Americans might stand fire, but they would run be- 
fore a charge of bayonets. This time the proverb failed. The men 
stood like rocks before the English weapons. Both sides fought 
like lions. At last a cry of " Quarter ! Quarter ! " broke from Fer- 
guson's men, and shouts of victory rose from the militia. These 
men, imperfectly disciplined, half clothed, shoeless, hatless, with such 
arms as they could collect together, had 
beaten Ferguson's troops, which numbered 
nearly one fourth of the forces of Corn- 
wallis, had taken eight hundred prisoners, 
and arms and ammunition to match. The ''>,, 
news of the battle of Kin/fs Mountain was / 
the first gleam of light which reached Wash- / 
ington through the darkness of the year // 
1780, in which treachery and defeat had 
seemed to brood over his country. 

General Greene brought with him several able ofiicers, when he 
came down to South Carolina to take the command of the army, 
where Gates had failed so signally. He had brave General Mor- 
gan, who had served in the campaign against Burgoyne, and fought 
at the battle of Stillwater. General Lee, who had been Washington's 
confidant in the endeavor to capture Arnold, also joined Greene, with 
a body of cavalry, and Colonel Washington, a relative of the com- 
mander-in-chief, met his army there. A brave young Polish officer. 




262 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



named Thaddeus Kosciuszko, also went as a civil engineer, to make 
the plans for fortifications. This Kosciuszko had also planned the 
defense at Bemis Heights in the campaign against Burgoyne, and 
had been hard at work strengthening West Point, and making it a 
stronghold Avhich the British had found impregnable. Young Kos- 




vc^y 



ciuszko was a noble friend to liberty, and afterwards fought bravely 
in his own unhappy country of Poland, to gain the freedom for her, 
that he had helped the United States to gain for themselves. 

The army that awaited General Greene in South Carolina was 
not a very promising one. It was ragged and dirty, and looked 
very much like the famous army of Falstaff, in Shakspeare's play 
of " Henry IV." There were a great many militia belonging to the 
State in its ranks, and although they often fought bravely, they 
could not be relied on in a pitched battle, as fully as the Continental 
troops, who had been drilled and disciplined by long service in the 
war. But Greene worked vigorously, and showed himself a master 
of strategy in his Carolina campaign. 



DEFEAT AND VICTORY IX THE SOUTH. 263 

The first battle after liis arrival was fought on tlie 17th of Janu- 
ary, 1781, at Cowpens in South Carolina. The place has not a 
very romantic name. It was so called from a herd of cows who 
had been penned up near the battle-field. It was not far from 
Kinji's Mountain, where Fero-uson had been defeated, and the battle 
was fought by the troops of ]\Iorgan and Tarleton. Morgan was 
retreating toward the north, and Tarleton had been ordered to pur- 
sue him. He was so sure of an easy victory that he led his men 
forward without giving them time to eat or sleep. At Cowpens 
Morgan suddenly turned and accepted the challenge to fight. The 
day ended in victory for the Americans and in Tarleton's complete 
route. At first the Americans had given way, and Tarleton 
thought they were retreating, but at the moment he was sure of 
victory, young Colonel Washington rode up with a body of cavalry 
and sent the redcoats flying from the field. After this battle, which 
proved that the redoubtable Tarleton was no more invincible than 
Ferguson, the American hopes rose higher. The news of the vic- 
tory reached the ears of a patriotic lady in whose house Tarleton 
had quartered himself and a party of officers. He knew the lady 
had a great admiration of Colonel William Washington, and took 
every opportunity of sneering at him. 

" I should like once to see your friend, Mr. Wasliington," he said 
one day. " I hear he is very insignificant in his appearance." 

" If you had taken time to look behind you at Cowpens, Colonel 
Tarleton, you might have seen Colonel Washington," rejoined the 
lady. Her tongue was too sharp for the British officer, and he said 
no more after this. 

The patriotic women of South Carolina equaled the men in bravery. 
They not onl}' encouraged their husbands and sons by brave words, 
but often acted the part of messengers in expeditions of trust and 
secrecy. Two brave women whose husbands were in the army, dis- 
guised themselves in. the dress of men, and intercepted two British 
soldiers bearing dispatches, captured the papers, and bore tliem to 
General Greene, whose camp was not far distant. They showed 
the spirit of the noble matron who told Cornwallis she had seven 
sons in the army with General Sumter. 

Cornwallis had stopped at her house to dine on his march north- 
ward, and when, in answer to his inquiries she told him this fact, he 
endeavored to persuade her of the folly of fighting against the king, 
and the superior advantages they would enjoy in joining his army. 



264 



STORY OF OUR. COUNTRY. 



She heard him through, and then putting her hand on the head of 
her youngest boy, standing beside her, answered him thus, — 

" Sooner than I woukl see one of my boys turn back in their noble 
enterprise, I would myself take this child, enlist under Sumter's 




Women intercepting Dispatches. 



banner, and show my sons how to fight, and if need be, to die, for 
their freedom." 

With such women to inspire them, no wonder the men refused to 
be beaten, even when affairs were at the darkest in the Carolinas. 



GREENE'S CAMPAIGN. 265 

CHAPTER L. 

GREENE'S CAMPAIGN. 

March through tlie Caruliuas. — Attack upon Canulen. — Fort Ninety-six. — Eutaw Springs. 

As soon as Cornwallis heard of Tarletoii's defeat he hastened on 
to intercept Morgan, hoping to capture him before he could join the 
main army under Greene. 

But Greene was too cunning to allow his able officer to be caught 
in this way, and had himself hastened to join Morgan as soon as he 
heard of the affair at Cowpens. Cornwallis with his whole army 
then prepared to pursue the Americans and force them to battle. 
Greene was not yet ready to fight. His policy was to hold off from 
battle till he had got his army under better discipline and raised 
some needed reinf(jrcements. For three weeks he kept up a rapid 
march, the whole army in motion, with Cornwallis close behind. 
They crossed the South Carolina borders, marching up through 
North Carolina. Three times in fording the rivers in their path the 
vanguard of Cornwallis overtook Greene's rear, as they were getting 
their stores and ammunition across the stream. Each time there 
was sharp skirmishing, a few left dead or wounded on both sides ; 
still the retreat kept on with undiminished ardor. At length both 
armies paused near the Virginia border, and after several weeks of 
mana'uvring and watching each other's movements, they met once 
more. This was at Guilford Court House in North Carolina. (Gen- 
eral Greene, occupying a hill near the court-house, waited for the 
attack of Cornwallis. He had more men than the British com- 
mander, but they were badly drilled, and many of them were state 
militia wlio had been picked up in the march and ordered to take a 
gun and fall into the American ranks. Many of these were Tories at 
heart, and the commander knew it. They were stationed in the 
front rank, with fif-ty picked soldiers at their backs with loaded 
rifles, ordered to shoot the first man who tried to run from the 
enemy. None of the men had eaten a good meal for weeks. They 
had been eating frogs from the swamps, and green rice from the 
plantations, and no army fights well on an empty stomach. We 
cannot wonder, then, that the Americans were beaten at Guilford 
Court House. If Greene had not led them back in an orderly 
retreat it would have been a bad day's work for them. As it turned 



266 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

out, the victoiy of Cornwallis was hardly better than a defeat. His 
army were tired out and discouraged. Weary of the Carolinas, he 
turned aside and went over to Virginia to join the royal forces near 
Yorktown. 

Greene, after resting and recruiting his forces, went back again to 
Camden, South Carolina, where Lord Rawdon commanded the re- 
mainder of the British army in the South. He attacked Camden, 
but was repulsed, with a large loss on both sides. Greene fell back 
toward Fort Ninety-six, about thirty miles north of Camden. 

All this time, Marion, Sumter, and Lee were in the field attacking 
the various forts held by British and Tories. One after another 
these posts surrendered. General Pickens, at the head of a band of 
militia, was emulating Marion and Sumter in deeds of daring. The 
larger part of South Carolina was again in the hands of the pa- 
triots. 

Greene had already begun the siege of Fort Ninety-six, his first 
point of attack since his repulse at Camden. Rawdon with fresh 
reinforcements approached the stronghold, hoping to enter and re- 
lieve the garrison before Greene had entirely invested it. The 
American Commander saw that he must storm the fort before Raw- 
don's army approached, and accordingly ordered an attack. It was 
gallantly met by the Royalists and Tories inside the walls, and after 
a siege that had lasted nearly a month, Greene was obliged to fall 
back unsuccessful. 

Shortly after this Rawdon left the army and returned to England, 
leaving Colonel Stuart, the officer next in rank, in command. It 
was very hot summer weather, and in the midst of swamps and in- 
terlacing streams, the two armies lay only a few miles apart, for 
almost two months, before they were ready to risk another battle. 
Early in September Colonel Stuart was posted at Eutaw Springs. 
Here General Greene, joined by Lee, Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, 
determined to attack him. 

The battle that followed is known as the battle of Eutaw Springs. 
It was one of the hottest battles of the war, and lasted four hours. 
The Americans at one time gained the whole field, and prepared to 
claim the victory. But the British had made a citadel of a strongly 
built brick house, surrounded b}'^ a picket fence ; and here they held 
a strong position from which it was impossible to dislodge them. 
After a sharp contest about the house, the men and officers some- 
times fighting hand to hand with bayonets and swords, Greene fell 



♦ THE WINTER OF 1780-81. 267 

back seven miles. Both sides claimed victory, but the result was 
most ruinous to Stuart, who immediately after the fight went to 
Charleston, to seek refuge. Except Charleston, there was now no 
place of importance held by the British in all the Carolinas. 



CHAPTER LI. 

THE WINTER OF 1780-81. 

Mutiny in the .A.rmy. — Riot among Wayne's Troops. — Mutineers shot. — Benedict Arnold 
ravages Virginia. — Governor Thomas .Jefferson. — Arnold in his Native State. — Barbarous 
Murder of Colonel Ledyard. — Concentration of the French and American Forces for Cam- 
paign of 1781. 

General Wayne — ^' Mad Anthony Wayne," as the soldiers 
called him — commanded the division of the American army quar- 
tered at Morristown. All the winter of 1780-81 the men had been 
living there in huts, badly fed and only half clothed. Early in Jan- 
uary news came to Wayne that his whole division of Pennsylvania 
troops was in revolt and up in arms against their officers. General 
Wayne rode out to the front of the regiments which were drawn up 
in hostile order. He endeavored to argue with them, but although 
Wayne was much loved by the men, they would not listen to him. 
To his entreaties that they would lay down their arms, they had 
only one answer, — 

" We love you, General Wayne ; you have often led us to battle, 
and we respect you as our leader, but we are no longer under your 
command. If you attempt to fire on us or to enforce your orders, 
we shall instantly kill you." 

It was true that the men had great cause for complaint. Their 
families were suffering at home while they were in the field, starved 
and ragged. Congress could not pay with anything but its worth- 
less paper money, and the war seemed no nearer its end than two 
years before. Many of the men declared they had only enlisted for 
three years, while the officers claimed it was for the war. Feeling 
had risen to so high a pitch that the whole army in New Jersey was 
in a state of mutiny. Washington was appealed to, and Congress 
was urged to pay the men. But the}'^ could as easily make bricks 
without clay, as furnish money from an empty treasury. Poor 
Robert Morris, the Continental treasurer, had a very difficult task 
before him. 



268 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. • 

The riot among Wayne's troops was finally subdued, and a large 
number of the soldiers, who claimed that their time had expired, 
were allowed to leave the army. No sooner was this over, however, 
than news reached head-quarters of another still more alarming re- 
volt among the New Jersey troops. Washington at once decided 
that it would not do to compromise with the mutinous army. He 
sent a force of troops from West Point, on whose fidelity he could 
depend, to subdue the mutineers. They were surrounded and cap- 
tured without resistance. Three of the ringleaders were sentenced 
to be shot, and twelve of their comrades, who had been engaged with 
them in resistance to authority, were condemned to act as execu- 
tioners. The three victims were led out, and after having their eyes 
bandaged were placed on their knees. The miserable men who had 
been their companions plead with tears to be spared the punishment 
of firing at them. But the severe justice of war is deaf to pleading 
and tears, and they were commanded to be silent and obey. Just 
before the twelve guns were fired, one of the criminals was par- 
doned ; the other two, fell dead under the fire from the weapons 
which were leveled at them. After this, thei'e was no more revolt 
in the Continental arm3\ It was a cruel necessit}^ of war ■ that these 
poor wretches should die. But the more closely you look at war, the 
more you will discover that all its demands are cruel and inliuman. 

Sir Henry Clinton had heard with delight that the army was in 
revolt, and had sent messengers to the men asking them to desert. 
But the men, whom Arnold's treachery had filled with a horror of 
desertion, replied that they " were not traitors, and had no wish to 
be such ; tliey only asked for justice from their country." In 
most cases they gave the British messengers up to their officers, and 
they were hung as spies. The poorest man among the Americans 
despised the base traitor who had sold himself to the enemy, even 
while they suffered for food and shelter 

Arnold felt bitterly the hatred and contempt all his countrymen 
manifested for him. All his actions showed a desire for revenge, 
and a delight in gloating over the miseries he was able to Inflict, 
He was now a British officer, in connnand of a large force, and was 
able fully to indulge his malice. Early in January, 1781, the Vir- 
ginians were alarmed by the report of a large armed fleet coming 
up the James River. The whole country was filled with anxiety 
at the news. Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who had just succeeded Pat- 
rick Henry as governor, mounted his horse and rode over the country 



THE WINTER OF 1780-81. 269 

along the borders of the .lames, calling the people to arms, and 
yrdering the planters to burn their tobacco, rather than allow 
it to fall into the hands of the British. The militia of the State 
were called out to aid the regular troops. Baron Steuben, who had 
command of the Continental troops near Richmond, was notified that 
the enemy were coming on to the city. But before militia or regular 
troops could move, Arnold had entered Richmond, burnt the town, 
made bonfires of all the tobacco stored there, emptied all the gun- 
powder into the river, and was oft' again before the militia or the 
troops could catch hiin. He went back down the James, occasionally 
landing to plunder, burn, and destroy the plantations on the river 
bank. The curses of the Americans followed him wherever he went. 

After this expedition to Virginia he went to his native State of 
Connecticut, and entering the harbor at New London, resumed his 
ravages. He ordered the town to be burnt, and looked on while 
the homes of his fellow-citizens, and the friends of his youth and 
childhood, were consumed. Opposite New London, Fort Griswold 
was situated, commanded by Colonel Ledyard and a small party 
of militia. Arnold's troops attacked and took this fort, which was 
courageou^y defended by the little garrison. When the British 
officer. Major Bromfield, entered, he cried out, '' Who commands 
here ? " 

" I did, sir," ansAvered Ledyard, " but you do now,'' at the same 
time presenting his sword. 

Without a word the officer stabbed him to the heart, and he fell 
dead in the door of the fortress that he had so gallantly defended. 
Then a cold-blooded slaughter of the garrison began, in which nearly 
all perished by sword and bayo;uet. Such acts as these marked 
Arnold's treacher}^ to the country which had given him birth. 

While Arnold was ravaging Virginia, Washington sent Lafayette 
thither to join General Steuben. All the soldiers loved the young 
Fi-enchman. From his own private purse he bought them comforta- 
ble clothes, shoes, and hats. He examined the rations, to see that his 
soldiers were well fed. There were not many deserters from his 
camp, and no general met with a warmer welcome than he, Avhen 
he showed himself among his men. 

Washington had been all this year threatening the English army 
.stationed in New York, and planning to take that city. Sir Henry 
Clinton believed this was what the American commander-in-chief 
intended to do. But when Cornwallis marched into Virginia, 



270 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Washington changed liis phms. He went up to Rhode Island to 
see the Count Rochanibeau, who was stationed there with a larsre 
body of French troops, and they decided to go to Virginia and make 
the Okl Dominion State their battle-ground. 




Lafayette- 
General Wayne was ordered to join Lafayette and Steuben in 
Virginia. A large fleet was expected early in the fall from France, 
under the Count de Grasse. If Washington could elude Clinton, 
and reach Virginia with Rochanibeau before the British could 
strengthen their forces in Virginia, he felt sure that Cornwallis 
would soon be in his power. 

The plans were well made and the secret well kept. The two 
divisions, under Washington and his French ally, reached Philadel- 
phia just about the time that the French fleet under De Grasse 
entered Chesapeake Bay, and the fresh troops from France were 
landed to reinforce Lafayette's army. Clinton was cut off from 
Cornwallis, who was down in Yorktown, fifteen miles above the 
mouth of the York River. 




SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. 271 

CHAPTER LII. 

SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. 

March of French Army to Virginia. — The whole Army of Washington before Yorktown. — 
The Batteries open Fire. — Cornwallis attempts to Escape. — His Surrender. — General Lin- 
coln's Revenge. — End of the War. 

The march of Rocluimbeau througli the country, to Virginia, 
was Uke a triumphal march. In Philadelphia the streets were 
crowded with citizens eager to look upon the 
allies to whom the country owed so much. The 
magnificent uniforms of the officers, glittering 
with gold lace; their horses gay with trappings 
of gold and silver and scarlet cloth ; the dress 
of the soldiers, white broadcloth faced with 
green ; — everything was in contrast to the poor 
and plain equipments of the Continental army. 
Washington's troops were in unusually good Rochambeau. 

condition, however, and all the patriots felt hopeful that the coming 
campaign would be successful. 

Cornwallis had been busily fortifying Yorktown. All about the 
city he had thrown up trenches and constructed redoubts to hin- 
der the approach of the Americans. Yet he knew that he had only 
7,000 men, 1,000 of whom were negro slaves, armed to assist the 
royal cause. The united army of the French and Americans could 
not be less than 16,000, 13,000 of this number disciplined troops, and 
the other 3,000 picked men of the Virginia militia. If Clinton could 
not send an army to his aid, Cornwallis felt that his case was hope- 
less. On the 28th of September Washington's army marched from 
Williamsburg, Virginia, and sat down one mile from Yorktown. 
Only a short distance away they could see the outer works of the 
enemy ; and the hum and bustle of life in the British camps must 
have reached the ears of the Americans. Everything was order 
and regularity. There must be no hurrying and no false move- 
ments in so important an affair as a siege. Two days after Wash- 
ington appeared, Cornwallis drew all his forces inside his fortifica- 
tions. He had received private dispatches that Clinton would send 
him relief by the 5th of October. If he could hold out until then, 
Yorktown might be held and his honor as a British leader saved. 

18 



272 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Siege of YorMown. 



Incessantly the batteries kept up their roar against the besieged 
town. Gun after gun was silenced, and the ditches outside the 

town were filled with shattered 
fragments of the wall, and 
heaped with the dead and d}^- 
ing who had fallen in defend- 
ing it. The Americans, under 
cover of the intrenchments 
which they threw up in the 
night approached every day 
nearer the town. Even at 
night the batteries were not 
still, and ever}^ now and then 
a shell went whizzing through 
the air like a blazing comet, 
falling with a great roar inside 
the fortifications. 
By the evening of the 14th of October only two redoubts lay 
between our army and the town. It was decided that these must 
at once be carried. Two columns, one French and one American, 
were ordered to attack on the right and left. The French column 
was commanded by Lafayette, the Americans were under Colonel 
Alexander Hamilton of New York. They carried the redoubt by 
the bayonet with only a small loss, although the enemy kept up a 
steady fire upon them. 

Cornwallis saw himself completely surrounded, with no hope ex- 
cept by flight. He accordingly planned to convey his men across 
the York River, in boats, under cover of darkness, and march north 
through Maryland and Pennsylvania, till he joined Clinton in New 
York. He managed with great secrecy, and had already got part of 
his army across the river, when a terrific storm of wind and rain 
came up which overturned some of his boats, and obliged the men 
to return drenched and disheartened inside their fortifications again. 
Still there were no signs of Clinton's coming to his relief. Count 
de Gi'asse had so well blocked up the river entrance that no Eng- 
lish ship could enter. All further defense was useless ; and after 
some correspondence with Washington, Cornwallis was obliged to 
declare that he could no longer continue the struggle. 

The general appointed to receive the vanquished troops upon the 
field where they were to deliver up their arms, was General Lincoln, 



CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 273 

who at the surrender of Charleston had given up his sword to Gen- 
eral Cornwallis. To him the haughty British officer had dictated 
the hardest terms. The same measure that liad been meted out to 
him, Lincoln now returned to his adversary, and would not soften 
any of the terms of capitulation which had been proposed. 

Cornwallis claimed to be, and very likely was, ill on the day of 
the surrender. It was a glorious day for America, a bitter one for 
the British army. The American and French allies were drawn up 
in two opposite lines, through which the conquered army marched. 
Washington, attended by Lafayette, Steuben, Knox, and others of 
his suite, headed one line ; the Count de Rochambeau, with his 
officers, led the other. General O'Hara, one of the staff officers of 
Cornwallis, appeared at the head of the British army, which was led 
by General Lincoln to the place where the arms were to be stacked. 
The men, most of them, maintained a sullen silence, shading their 
faces with their hats. Some threw their guns with violence upon 
the ground. Some of the officers wept outright at giving up their 
arms, while others wore a look of haughty defiance, and refused to 
look upon their conquerors. 

Washington and all his officers showed the utmost kindness to 
their captives. Even Cornwallis, in his report to Clinton, speaks 
of this, and mentions with great warmth the kindness of the French 
officers, which he hopes will be remembered in 
future warfare. But Cornwallis was so deeply 
humiliated by his conquest that he could hardly 
appreciate the courtesy of Washington. Once 
when they were conversing together, Corn- 
wallis stood with his head bare. 

" You had better be covered from the cold, 
my lord," said Washington, politely. 

" It does not matter what becomes of this comwaiiis. 

head now," answered Cornwallis, putting his hand to his brow. 

With the siege of Yorktown the great conflict ended. The war, 
begun on the soil of Massachusetts, closed in Virginia. There was 
still skirmishing on the Indian frontiers, and trouble on the New 
York border, in Sir John Johnson's region, between Tories and 
Whigs ; but the war was virtually decided, and from that time the 
colonies of England became free and independent States. 




27-1 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER LIII. 

CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Savannah and Charleston evacuated by the British. — England baited on all Sides. — She is 
glad to have Peace. — Our Great Statesmen during the War. — Benjamin Franklin in 
France. — John Adams and Thomas .Jefferson. — Henry Laurens in the Tower of London. — 
John Jay. — The First Secretary of the Treasury. — The Commission to Treat for Peace. — 
The Thirteen English Colonies become the Nation of the United States. — Evacuation of 
New York City. — Fireworks on Bowling Green. — Washington's Farewell to his Officers. — 
Affecting Scene in Francis's Tavern. 

I HAVE told you that the war was virtually over when Cornwallis 
gave up his sword at Yorktown. Yet the British army still held 
to their posts, and for more than a year no movement was made to 
give up the large cities of New York, Charleston, and Savannah. 
In South Carolina, Greene still kept his eye fixed upon Charleston, 
ready at any time, if there was opportunity, to strike a blow for the 
possession of the city. 

In July, 1782, the British concluded they would give up Savan- 
nah, and accordingly marched away, leaving the patriots there to 
draw their breath freely once more, and to rejoice in the absence of 
military rule. By the 14th of December they left Charleston also, 
and General Greene marched in to the tune of " Yankee Doodle," 
while all the Whigs in town waved their hats and handkerchiefs in 
the streets, at open windows and from balconies, shouting, " God 
bless our army and the gallant General Greene!" All the Tories, 
who could not go away with the British army, slunk dejectedly 
into corners, and wished they were in England, or some other place 
where King George the Third was still acknowledged the lawful 
ruler. 

The English people had had enough of war. It was not only 
that France was aiding America with men, money, and ships, but 
Spain had declared war with England ; and even the little state of 
Holland, her next-door neighbor, was almost on the point of quar- 
reling with her. England was like the bull in a Spanish arena, 
baited on all sides, and though she held out with her usual pluck 
on such occasions, she began to breathe hard, and show signs of 
giving in. When a large party at home, growing larger as the 
war went on, kept crying, "Stop the war! Give us peace ! PEACE ! 
PEACE ! " the English king and his ministers began at last to see 
that they might as well stop, before all the other powers in Europe 



CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 275 

had joined hands with America, and each taken up a cudgel in her 
defense. Therefore tlie men in power who had advised and carried 
on tlie war, now resigned their seats in the English government, 
and a new set of men took their places, determined to have peace 
on the best terms they could get, but at all events to have peace. 

All through the war we have heard constantly about the men 
who have been fighting and winning battles, but not so much about 
men who have been managing other affairs at home and abroad. I 
am not sure but those were the greatest men, who waited on 
foreign courts and princes, borrowed money, supplied Congress 
with means, and wore a brave face before strangers, when they 
were heart-sick with anxiety at the news from Washington and his 
army. Now the war was over, these men began to come uppermost. 
States always use warriors or politicians. I do not use the word 
" politician " in the sense of a vulgar, party schemer, but to denote 
a man who can work with politic wisdom for the good of his coun- 
try. Perhaps statesman would be the better word. 

Our great statesmen had most of them been either in civil offices 
at home or public offices abroad, during the war. At the head of 
them stands Benjamin Franklin. He had been several years in 
Paris. I do not know what we should have done without him there. 
I think we owe quite as much to his long head, as to the surrender 
of Cornwallis or Burgoyne. Everybody in Paris reverenced him. 
Louis XVI. was then King of France, and Marie Antoinette (poor 
lady, she afterwards had her pretty head cut off by the guillotine) 
was queen. In their court, the ladies and courtiers in their gor- 
geous dresses, like a flock of tropical birds and butterflies, fluttered 
round Doctor Franklin, when he came to visit the royal palace in 
his plain brown coat, and vied with each other to show him honor. 
If he had been Prester John, or the Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, in 
the glittering robes of the " Arabian Nights," he would not have 
made a greater sensation than he did in his own quiet, modest 
presence. They could refuse him nothing he asked, and principally 
through his influence came the tide of money and fleets from France 
which had helped us through the war. His shrewd common sense 
was never dazzled by flattery, and he never lacked the clear, keen 
judgment, which threw light on the ways that wei-e darkest and 
most doubtful. 

Then there was John Adams, who had been to the front ever 
since the stamp act agitation, a warm-hearted, warm-headed patriot. 



276 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Not SO cool and clear-headed a man as Franklin, but a successful 
diplomatist, who had succeeded in borrowing money of the little 
state of Holland at a time when there was hardly a dollar in the 
hands of Congress. Franklin and he did not always agree ; and 
the great philosopher said of liim, " Adams is always honest, often 
great, and sometimes mad." Adams was the first minister sent to 
England from America, after the United States were declared inde- 
pendent, and the place suited him and he suited it. He was a bit 
of an aristocrat, although he was born in Massachusetts. 

Another man, very different from either of these, was Thomas 
Jefferson, as ardent as Adams, as clear-sighted as Franklin. He 
was the man to whom we owe the grandest utterances of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. He was the truest democrat that ever 
breathed the breath of freedom. By that I mean that he not only 
declared and believed that men had equal right to " life, libei-ty, and 
the pursuit of happiness," but he acted on that belief. He was Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, you know, in Arnold's invasion, and his beautiful 
estate of Monticello had been trampled over and devastated, his 
horses killed, and all his plantation laid waste. So he had suffered 
with the rest, for liberty. Like Franklin, he was more than a poli- 
tician : a man of wide learning, practical acquirements, cultivated 
tastes, yet simple in dress and manners, a loving husband, tender 
fathei', and loyal friend. Such was Thomas Jefferson, of whom we 
shall hear more hereafter. 

Henry Laurens had also been one of the statesmen brought for- 
ward by the war. He was from South Carolina, and from the first 
had stood firm for liberty. In 1777 he was made President of Con- 
gress, succeeding John Hancock, wdio had served in that capacity 
since the Declaration. After this Laurens was sent to Holland 
to make a treaty, and gain their sympathy for the Americans. 
On the voyage, his vessel, which was only a small Dutch trader, 
was stopped by an English man-of-war. When Laurens saw his 
danger, he threw the box containing his private dispatches over the 
side of the vessel. Quick as he was, he was not quite quick enough 
to escape the eye of an English sailor, who leaped overboard and 
rescued the box. The officers of the ship read treason in every fine 
of the dispatches, and seizing Laurens as their prisoner, hurried 
him off to London. Taken before a board of commissioners he was 
asked, " Is your name Henry Laurens ? " " It is." " Are you the 
Laurens who was President of Congress in America ? " "I am." 



CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 



277 



" Then, sir, we are ordered to examine yon, as to your designs and 
your mission abroad." 

" Your lordships may spare yourselves the trouble, as I think it 
my duty to answer no questions." 

On this he was sent to 
the Tower of London, after 
some discussion whether he 
should be ordered there as 
a prisoner of state or be 
sent to Newgate prison as a 
rebel criminal. 

Not least among this 
group of great men comes 
John Jay, whom we have 
seen before, sitting in the 
first Continental Congress in 
Philadelphia. All through 
the war he had fought with 
tongue and pen as effect- 
ively as Gates and Greene 
with sword and bayonet ; 
and while Franklin was in 

France, and Ada.us in Hoi- M^^^ /O^J^ 
land, he had been in bpaui «^ *^^ ^ "^ T 

pleading the cause of the ' 

colonies there. 

I should be ungrateful if I forgot Robert Morris, the hard-worked 
superintendent of the empty money chests of Continental Congress. 
He had about as thankless a task as anybody, and nobody could 
have done better unless he had power to make stones into gold, and 
good currency out of dried leaves, like the enchanters in fairy tales. 
He pledged his own credit very often to get money to pay off the 
soldiers ; and when the army was starving, it was his own notes 
that furnished them with flour and beef. He was scolded about and 
blamed, when affairs went badly, because he did not furnish money 
to make them better, and was that useful scapegoat on whom to lay 
all faults, — " the chief of the Treasury Department." In his old age 
he lost his fortune, which at one time was large, and spent some 
of the last years of his life in a debtor's prison. " Thus the world 
rewards those who serve it," said Columbus, sadly, and his cry 
is repeated by nearly all who have followed in his footsteps. 




278 



STORY OB^ OUR COUNTRY. 



Now that war was over and peace was to be talked of, these men 
I have been describing to you were looked to at once for counsel. In 
those days the country knew the men who would serve her best, 

and elected them without 
quarreling over it. So 
Franklin, Jefferson, 
Adams, Laurens, and 
Jay, were at once chosen 
to meet with the English, 
French, Spanish, and 
Dutch commissioners in 
Paris, and decide upon 
terms of peace. When 
arrangements were all 
made for a meeting of 
these high mightinesses, 
only Franklin and Jay of 
the Americans, were pres- 
ent. Jefferson had a sick 
wife at Monticello, and 
he was too good a hus- 
band to leave her alone 
if any one could be 
found to serve in his 
stead. Laurens was still in the Tower of London, where he had 
remained since his capture, and Adams was in Holland completing 
his business there. Thus Franklin and Jay were alone to represent 
the wishes of their countrymen in the peace. 

Franklin held firmly for three things, before signing the peace 
articles : First, that the LTnited States should be recognized as a 
free nation, indepeudent of England ; second, that the Canada 
boundaries should be satisfactory, giving us control of the great 
lake-chain of the Northwest ; third, that we should have right to 
fish for cod oft' Newfoundland banks. You know this last had been 
a great privilege ever since the region had been named " New 
France," and the sailors of Brittany began to come fishing there. 
All these conditions were finally agreed upon, after much talking 
about it, and Franklin and Jay went home triumphant. 

It was on the eighth anniversary of the battle of Lexington that 
peace was proclaimed in America. If in reading these chapters 




CLOSING EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION. 279 

about the Revolution, you have reahzed what a train of sickening 
horrors follows in the track of war, j^ou will be able to rejoice with 
the United States when it was all over, and peace reigned over the 
land. 

Now followed two great events : the evacuation of New York by 
the British, and the disbanding of Washington's army. Sir Guy 
Carleton, who had been the British commander since Cornwallis 
surrendered, left New York city in November, 1783. With him 
went ship-loads of Tories, who emigrated to Canada or Nova Scotia, 
in order, as they declared, " to escape from the tyranny and oppres- 
sion of their countrymen." 

It took the British army several weeks to load and embark upon 
their ships, and leave New York once more a free city. When they 
were gone, the Americans, under General Knox, came in with many 
of the patriots, who had been forced to live away from their houses 
while the British occupied them. There was great rejoicing. 
They had a splendid show of fireworks that evening on the Bowl- 
ing Green, where the leaden statue of George III. used to stand. 
The statue had been taken down and melted into bullets during 
the war, and now in its place was a great pyrotechnic arch of vic- 
tory, where perched a dove in purple flame, holding an olive branch 
of green fire, and all around, grand rockets, like fiery serpents, lit up 
the waters of the Bay and the Hudson, now for the first time in 
seven years free from the presence of English ships of war. 

A week later, one morning early in December, Washington met 
his officers in the parlor of an inn, called " Francis's Tavern." They 
came together for the last time to bid farewell to each other and 
their beloved commander. The men who had been comrades in 
many a bloody battle-field, facing death together for seven years, 
assembled in silence and deep sadness. There were many tender 
friendships to sever; many would say " Good-by," who could never 
meet again, and the sadness of parting shed a gloom even over the 
remembrance that their efforts had aided to give a new free land to 
the world's company of nations. 

When they were all present, Washington filled his glass with 
vdne, and standing, drank the health of the company. Then he 
said, his voice tremulous with emotion, " I cannot come to each of 
you to take my leave, but I shall be gratified if each man will come 
and take me by the hand." 



280 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



As he- said this General Knox, a man whom Washington dearly- 
loved, came forward and fell upon the neck 
of his commander-in-chief. Washington, 
moved to tears, embraced and kissed him, 
and the ice thus broken, each one came 
forward to take his leave. The bravest 
men, those most unmoved by cannon smoke 
and ball, were hot ashamed to weep that 
day. And in the midst of the parting of 
those heroes, who have worked so nobly for 

their country, we will draw the curtain upon the close of the War for 

Independe7ice. 




General Knox. 



PART II. 



THE STORY OF THE NATION: ITS BIRTH, CONFLICTS, 
AND TRIUMPHS. 



PART II. 



THE STORY OF THE NATION : ITS BIRTH, CONFLICTS, AND 

TRIUMPHS. 

CHAPTER I. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Forming a Government. — The Constitution and its Makers. — Grand Celebration in New 
York Cit}-. — The Two Political Parties. — Washington made President. — Inauguratioa 
Ball. — Change in Dress and Manners after the Revolution. 

For six years after the Revolution, these thirteen United States 
had no government ex- 
cept that exercised by 
the " Continental Con- 
gress " which had 
worked so hard all 
through the war. This 
Congress was doing 
its best to pay off the 
debts due its armies ; 
arrange for new loans 
of money from foreign 
countries ; keep the 
quarrelsome Indians in 
check ; and administer 
justice to the utmost of 
its power. But it was 
the general opinion that 
there must be a new 
government, although, 
whenever it was talked 
over, there was a great 
difference among the 
people as to the kind which would suit the country best. A large 




"-^^^-^e^xj 



284 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



party were for " State Rights," meaning the right of each State to be 
independent of the others, with an agreement that all should unite in 
times of war, or in the event of the invasion of an enemy into any 
one of the States. Another party wanted a strong, united govern- 
ment, which should bind all the States into a great nation," one and 

indivisible." Another 
party, who thought the 
English form of " limited 
monarchy," about as good 
a government as could be 
made, would have been glad 
to have had such an one in 
this country. This was a 
small party, however. The 
largest part of the peo- 
ple believed in a "rejjub- 
lic," and in being governed 
by men chosen from among 
their own ranks for a lim- 
ited time. The American 
colonies had flourished for 
a century and a half, with 
a whole broad ocean be- 
tween themselves and their 
monarch, and consequently, 
had learned to believe they could get on very well without any king 
at all. 

In the spring of 1787, a convention met in Philadelphia, to make 
" The Constitution of the United States." Washington was made 
president of* this body. Franklin, now a venerable man ; Roger 
Sherman, whose trembling fingers had signed the Declaration ; 
Robert Morris, the treasurer of the old Congress ; Alexander Ham- 
ilton, whom we saw leading on a charge upon the batteries of York- 
town, — all these were in the convention. With them many other 
able men — fifty in all — debated earnestly day after day, rejecting 
this proposition, accepting that one, striking out a word here, put- 
ting in another there ; endeavoring to make the whole as perfect a 
set of laws as could be made by man. To aid them, they had the 
" Articles of Confederation " which Franklin had drawn up in 1777, 
when the colonies united to carry on the war. Four months they 




UA-p /-^ 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



285 



worked in this way, and at the end presented to the States the 
result of their hibor for their approvaL Of course it could not be a 
perfect Constitution, and it could not suit everybody. Franklin 
said, very wisely, that he was not exactly suited with it, but he 
thought on the whole it was the very best they could do, with so 
many diverse opinions to consult, with thirteen States, each wanting 
something a little different from the others, to unite under one gov- 
ernment. Jefferson, who was in Paris, learning how wretched the 
tyranny of kings can make a nation*, was so afraid of seeing the 
people here too much governed, that he wrote home he felt sure he 
should never like the new Constitution. On the whole it gave very 
good satisfaction. Ten of the States accepted it at once. The other 
three held out against it for a time ; little Rhode Island was the last 
to come into the ranks, and stoutly refused for a year or two, but 
finally gave in. Thirteen stars were set in the flag of the United 
States, and George Washington, " the father of his country," was 
made the first president. 




Inauguration of Washington. 

Then the large cities held celebrations on the adoption of the new 
Constitution. In New York they had a grand procession, such as 
was never before seen in America. It was headed by a person 
dressed to look like Columbus, the discoverer of our country. He 
was surrounded by pioneers, bearing axes, to denote the early set- 
tlers in the wilderness ; then came the farmers, with plows, scythes, 



286 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and reapers. All kinds of artisans followed, in cars fitted up like 
workshops. The bakers with a gigantic loaf of bread, ten feet high, 
inscribed with the names of the States ; the coopers, binduig the 
staves of an immense barrel with a strong iron hoop called " The 
New Constitution; " the butchers, with an ox weighing 1,000 pounds 
roasted whole ; the cabinet makers with a "' federal chair of state," 
gorgeous enough for an eastern emperor ; tailors, masons, carpenters, 
all carried some emblem of their trade. In the ranks were thirteen 
beautiful boys, each thirteen years old, dressed in white, with rib- 
bons and garlands of green. Grandest of all, was the ship of state, 
drawn on a car, by ten milk-white horses. The ship was manned 
by thirty sailors, who went aloft in the rigging, furled and unfurled 
the sails, and went through all the motions of bringing a ship safe 
to port through fair and foul weather. At one point they stopped 
and took a pilot on board, and at another, the gallant vessel was 
presented with a flag, which was received with cheers from the sail- 
oi's and the crowd. On the car representing a printing-office, a 
press was kept all the time in motion, ^printing copies of a patriotic 
song, which they flung right and left among the crowd. It was a 
grand day. The people shouted and hurrahed till they were hoarse, 
and finally the procession sat down to a banquet in a fine pavilion 
decorated with flags, and ate the barbecued ox, which the butchers 
had roasted, and drank toasts to the Constitution, and to George 
Washington, " the father of his country." 

With the Constitution the first political parties were born. You 
hear now about " Democrats " and " Republicans," or whatever else 
the two parties who vote against each other at elections are called. 
At this time there were " Federalists " and " Anti-Federahsts." The 
Federalists were those who were for the Constitution, and in favor 
of a strong, central government. The others, who were called first 
" Anti-Federahsts," then " RepubHcans," and lastly, " Democrats," 
were opposed to the Federalists. They accused them of being an 
aristocratic party, and said they wanted to make the government 
too aristocratic and leave the States no 'power, outside the general 
government. Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, John 
Jay, were Federalists. Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, 
James Madison, were Anti-Federalists. Please keep these parties 
in mind, as you will hear of them often. 

•' On the 4th of March, 1789, Washington was made president. 
He had been at Mount Vernon to enjoy a little rest and quiet, be- 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 287 

fore he entered on his new duties. His aged mother was there, 
proud of the son whom she had nursed, when she saw his whole 
country united in loving and honoring him. He said " Good-b}'^ " 
to the pleasant shades of his home almost with regret as he went to 
take his seat at the head of the nation. On his way to New York 
city, where Congress was to assemble, he was met everj'where by 
the outpouring of the people's love and reverence. At Trenton, 
where he had crossed the Delaware that wintry Christmas night, 
twelve years before, his way was strewn with roses, and young girls 
held arches of flowers over him, while they sang hymns of gratitude 
and welcome. 

In New York there was a grand " Inauguration Ball," where 
the array of handsome dresses was almost equal to that of the Pa- 
risian court. Washington left off his blue military coat with buff 
facings and liis buff breeches, and wore a handsome suit of black 
velvet with white silk stockings, and white satin waistcoat. He 
was always very nice in his dress, and with his tall elegant fig- 
ure and powdered hair, would have made a distinguished appear- 
ance anywhere. John Adams, the vice-president, was at the ball ; 
so was Hamilton, who was the new secretary of the treasury ; Gen- 
eral Knox, the secretary of war, and his distinguished looking wife, 
were also there ; and the whole assembly presented an array of beauty 
and grace, such as any court in Europe might have been proud of. 

Jefferson was called home from Paris to be secretary of state. 
He had been with Lafayette and a party of republicans in France 
who wore the red color of revolution, and astonished all his friends 
on his return by appearing in a white broadcloth coat, very long- 
waisted, scarlet waistcoat and breeches, cocked hat, and white silk 
stockings. It was enough to make men wonder to see Jefferson, 
generally so plain in his dress, in such brilliant hues. 

Just about this time, too, boots began to be worn, in place of low 
shoes with shining buckles, and high-topped " Hessians " reaching 
to the knee, with dangling tassels, were seen on the feet of the gen- 
tlemen who followed the newest fashions. There were a good 
many dandies sported their new Hessians on Broadway in those 
days. The new government made changes in the habits of the 
American people as well as in their rulers. This began to show 
itself in the clothes of the working men and women in the large 
cities, very soon after Washington became president. Before the 
war, the mechanics had worn leather aprons and breeches, checked 

19 



288 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

tow shirts, and flannel jackets all the week, and on Sundays their 
best clothes were homespun, with clumsy shoes and brass buckles. 
Now, they doffed leather aprons when they left the work-shop, and 
took to wearing full suits of broadcloth. Some people complained 
that you could not tell a carpenter or blacksmith in the street from 
a gentleman. There were a good many aristocrats left over from 
the old order, and they had not learned that a man may be both a 
gentleman and a carpenter or blacksmith. Some of the ladies, who 
did not own slaves, but kept white servants, complained that the 
new state of things had spoiled the servant-maids, Avho wanted to be 
called " hired help," had stopped saying " master " and " mistress," 
and would wear caps and gowns like a lady, although before the 
war they had been content with blue and white check gowns, and 
caps without frills. And they had grown so pert, that one could 
hardly give an order to a girl without seeing her flounce off to a new 
place. " There were a great many inconveniences in a republican 
government," said some of the grumblers. 



CHAPTER II. 

EVENTS IN WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

Settlers in the Western Country. — " D. Boon cilled a Bar." — Scarcity of Salt. — Dangerfrom 
Indians. — General Anthony Wayne sent to fight Savages. — Death of Wayne. — Three 
New States added to the Nation. — Story of Young Andrew Jackson. — Revolution in 
France. — The Guillotine. — French Sympathizers in the United States. — Washington's 
Public Life draws to a Close. 

Meanwhile the good ship of state sailed resolutely on, often 
among troubled waters. There were the Indian troubles always. 
The red men seemed to have made up their minds that no more 
white men should settle beyond the Ohio River. The great " Ohio 
Land Company " had been formed, holding the tract which now 
makes all the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wiscon- 
sin. There was a steady tide from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and 
Pennsylvania, spreading over that country, and settling up and down 
the banks of La Belle Riviere (the beautiful river), as the Ohio was 
called. Across the Cumberland Mountains, in the fertile valleys 
of Tennessee — a very garden spot of the earth, the poor Indians 
thought it, — the settlers from North Carolina were rushing in 



EVENTS IN WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



289 



with axe and plowshare. In Kentucky, twenty years before, Daniel 
Boone had gone, a lonely hunter with his gun on his shoulder, 
and stayed all wint.er, 
living on what food his 
gun furnished him, with- 
out salt or bread, till he 
could make a clearing, 
and next year bring in 
a party of friends and 
neighbors to settle with 
him. Years after, some- 
body found marked on a 
tree, in the spot where 
he had wintered, — 

D. Boon CillED. A BAR on 
TrEE in thE yEAR 1760. 

You and I could spell 
better than Boone and 
his comrades, perhaps, 
but we might not have 
been able to build cities 
in the wilderness with 
such obstacles to contend against. 

Very little in the way of luxury, or even of comfort, could be 
brought by these settlers into the wilderness. If they got a log 
cabin which would keep off the sun and rain, furnished with a rude 
table and some logs sawn off a tree trunk for seats, a bed in one 
corner and a fire-place in another, with an iron kettle to cook in, 
they were very well off. Salt was a luxury, yet they could not well 
do without it. It was all made on the sea-coast. In Kentucky every 
bushel was brought over the mountains of Virginia on pack-horses, 
and often cost the settlers sixteen and twenty dollars a bushel. 
Sometimes the settlers would hear of a salt spring in their vicinity, 
and with great labor would make a little home-made salt, — dirty 
looking stuff it was, too, — which they could sell for three or four 
dollars a bushel ; but they were not often so lucky. In those days 
they treasured their salt almost as if it were gold-dust. 

The Indians fought them every inch of the way. Almost every 
spring of sweet water, every strip of fertile meadow, every log cabin 
built in a clearing, was the scene of danger, perhaps of death. Such 




290 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



stories as these border histories are full of I Of lonely women sitting 
by the firelight, nursing one baby, — the other children asleep in a 

truckle bed in the corner, — 
watching for the father 
who has gone to mill, or to 
the next village. Whoop ! 
goes a horrid yell outside. 
"• Indians ! " whisper the 
awakened children, hud- 
dled under the bedclothes. 
The mother does not faint 
or scream. She looks at 
the barred door, to see if 
it is strongly fastened ; 
puts the baby down, takes 
the loaded gun from the 
corner, and fires from the 
nearest loop-hole. While 
she loads again, she cries 
in hoarse, masculine voice, 
" Now boys, fire all at 
once I " that she may de- 
ceive the Indians into the 
belief that they are garrisoned strongly inside. Sometimes the 
device succeeds, and one woman drives away a dozen painted war- 
riors. Sometimes they scale the roof, glide down the chimney, scalp 
wife and babies, and murder the husband returning to his desolate 
hearthstone. Sometimes they set fire to the thatch, the flame drives 
out the helpless victims to be taken prisoners, and suffer the tor- 
tures of Indian captivity. It is the old story, told over and over 
again in every border State of this nation. How, foot by foot, the 
white man has wrested the soil from the Indian, till everj- acre has 
been wet with blood, every hill has echoed with the cries of the 
d3nng who have perished in the struggle. 

Washington heard the appeals for help from the settlers in this 
region, and sent forces to protect them. General St. Clair and 
General Harmer tried first, but failed to subdue the savages. At 
length, in 1794, he sent brave Anthony Wayne, hero of Stony Point, 
with orders to try first to treat for peace with the savages, and if 
they would not hear words of peace, to give them war. Wayne 




EVENTS IN WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 291 

obeyed faithfully. He sent peace emissaries to the savages, and 
they killed them. A second and third time he made offers of peace, 
till the Indians whispered, " This pale-face is a coward, and afraid 
to fight." Then he marched on them, as he did on Stony Point, 
and forced them to peace at the point of the bayonet. He built a 
fort in the Ohio country where Fort Wai/iie, Indiana, now stands, 
and marched back again. Brave Anthony Wayne ! On his way 
home he was taken ill, died at a miserable tavern, in a wretched 
village in Western Pennsylvania, almost unattended, was buried in 
an unmarked grave, where he lay till years after, when his son re- 
moved his ashes to a more honorable resting-place. In England, 
they put their famous dead to rest under a noble pile called West- 
minster Abbey ; but the great men of America may sleep where 
they fall. It is too apt to be the bad fashion in a republic, to forget 
its great men when it has no more use for them. It does not gather 
up their dust as sacred, and build monuments to them. If they did 
we miglit have a Westminster Abbey too. 

Washington was president from 1789 to 1797. The president's 
term of office is only four years, but after his first term expired, his 
friends so earnestly desired him to accept the office a second time 
that he consented. During his administration the Union added three 
new States to its number, — Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

Vermont and its " Green Mountain Boys," among whom you will 
remember Ethan Allen and Setli Warner, had been fighting many 
years against the claims of New York, to hold her as part of that 
State. They had held stoutly to their independence, all the time 
growing stronger, and every now and then asking to be recognized 
as a separate State, till New York got tired of the contest, and said 
if Vermont would pay her |30,000, she would give up her claim. 
On this Vermont paid the money, and in 1791 came in under the 
Constitution as the fourteenth State. The very next year Kentucky 
showed her population of 77,000, and claimed the right to be a State 
also. Kentucky had gained her name, which in the Indian language 
means, " a dark and bloody field," by the Indian battles which had 
stained her so with blood. She was moderately peaceful now, with 
growing towns and villages, and Congress let her into its circle of 
States. 

In 1796 came Tennessee, so named from the pleasant river which 
watered her fertile plains, the sixteenth State in the growing Union. 
The first representative from this last new State was a tall, gaunt, 



292 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

rather aAvkward looking young man, named Andrew Jackson. He 
was born in North Carolina, and when a boy of fourteen had been 
taken prisoner by the British in their campaign against Greene. 
The British officer who captui-ed young Andrew Jackson, ordered 
him to clean his boots, and when the boy proudly refused to do such 
menial service, he knocked him down. This is one of the first 
things we hear of him, but not the last. He is poor, and has had a 
hard struggle, but he is bound to make his mark. Note him as he 
stands on the floor of Congress, first member from Tennessee, for we 
shall hear of him again. -^^ 

While we have been looking at Washington's administration at 
home, we must not forget that the United States had become one of 
the nations of the earth, had ministers at foreign courts, and was 
recognized as a power among other nations. The success in this 
country of the republican form of government, was talked about all 
over Europe. Kings and nobles, who live by the permanence of 
monarchies, did not like such a proof that nations were able to dis- 
pense with hereditary sovereigns. In France there were a great 
many republicans who hated tyranny, and wanted to see their own 
country under a better government, and the example of America 
made them long still more ardently to be free. 

France, poor country, had reason to be discontented, for her peo- 
ple had groaned under heavy taxes, paid to support worthless rulers, 
till they were in the very depths of misery. Their king, Louis 
XVI., was not a bad man, and would do as well as he knew how 
by his people. But discontent had grown too strong for him, and 
all over Paris was heard a deep undertone of rebellion like mutter- 
ing thunder. 

Lafayette, who was working hard in France, and had gained matiy 
wholesome ideas about liberty in America, did his best to help the 
king and advise him how to pacify the people. But the trouble had 
been too long brewing, and a great hungry people who had been 
starving on black bread, while their rulers feasted off gold and sil- 
ver dishes, could not be fed and made to hear reason both in one day. 
So, in spite of King Louis and Lafayette, and other good men with 
him, the great French Revolution broke furiously over France in 
the year 1792, in Washington's first administration. This is not 
a history of France, so I cannot tell you much about this revolution, 
except that it was the bloodiest, most fearful era in any history of 
any nation. For months the streets of Paris were filled with a 



EVENTS IN WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 293 

hungry, furious mob of men and women, who looked and acted hke 
blood-thirsty wolves. 

Guillotines — machines for cutting off the heads of its victims — 
were set up in public squares, and day after day the headless bodies 
of men and women lay piled up around these awful scaffolds. Mobs, 
wet to the armpits in blood, paraded the streets bearing aloft on 
pikes the ghastly heads of victims they had murdered. King Louis 
was beheaded, and his queen, Marie Antoinette. Beautiful and tal- 
ented women, noble and brave gentlemen, scholars, soldiers, peers 
and commoners, old and young, were sent in crowds to the guil- 
lotine, until it seemed as if there could be no stop to this horror. 
The only good that could come of such a dreadful thing, perhaps, 
was the lesson to other nations, that if power is too long abused, 
and a nation too long oppressed, there will come a dreadful day of 
reckoning in which the innocent and the guilty must suffer together 
for all the wrongs that have been done in the past. 

When the French Revolution began, before it got to these days 
of blood, and when good men like Lafayette were trying to make 
things better, all the French republicans looked to America to help 
them. They claimed that they had helped us in gaining our liberty, 
and there was a strong feeling here of sympathy for them. On the 
other hand, the more cautious Americans, who knew we were a new 
struggling nation, poor, and in debt, and still a good deal afraid of 
English power, argued that it would be wisest and safest to keep 
out of French troubles altogether. This made two parties in this 

#countr3^ : one for the French, the other against them ; and they hated 
each other as heartily as any tAvo parties ever hated in the whole 
history of politics. The Federalists, with Washington and Hamil- 
ton at the head, were for prudence and caution, and keeping out of 
French quarrels. The Republicans, with Jefferson to lead them, 
were strong sympathizers of France. For years, until the troubles 

^ in France were all ended, and Napoleon Bonaparte had made him- 
self emperor of that distracted country, the great fight in American 
politics was between the sympathizers with France and those who 
did not sympatliize with her, and there were times when the dispute 
ran so high that it came near making riot and bloodshed in this 
country. One of the French ambassadors, M. Genet, acted very 
foolishly here, b}^ trying to raise an army in America to aid the 
French cause. Washington held out firmly against this, and main- 
tained the doctrine of not interfering; in French matters. For this 



294 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

he was very much abused, altliough in the end it turned out to be 
the wisest course. After a time, many of the sympathizers with 
France, who had taken her side through a generous feeling of sym- 
pathy, grew disgusted with the way the revohition went on there, 
and the feeling in her favor grew less and less ardent, till it died out 
altogether. 

Washington's administration now drew to a close. The only 
other trouble of any importance, beside the Indian wars, and the 
intense feeling about the affairs in France, which occurred in his 
time, was the " Whiskey Insurrection " in Pennsjdvania. Whiskey 
is likely to make insurrections, or other kinds of trouble always, and 
this one was caused by a tax put upon this liquor by the govern- 
ment. At one time, in 1794, it threatened to be a serious rebellion, 
and the rioters burned the mails, and the houses of the tax-officers, 
and made a great deal of trouble. But Washington sent out a 
strong force, which subdued the rioters and restored peace. 

In 1796 Washington's second term expired. No arguments could 
make him accept the office another four years. He was sixty-five 
years old ; he had served his country faithfully ; now he wanted to 
spend in quiet the last years of his life in the pleasant home at 
Mount Vernon, with his wife, and her grandchildren, whom he 
loved as if they were his own. 

So the two parties had to select each a new leader. The Fed- 
eralists took John Adams, who had been vice-president with 
Washington ; the Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson, who had 
been from the first their leader. In those days — we have changed 
it now — the man who had the most votes in the presidential elec- 
tion, was president ; he who had the second highest number was 
vice-president. When the votes were counted it was found Adams 
was president and Jefferson vice-president. 



CHAPTER III. 

ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 

War with France imminent. — Wasliington and Napoleon. — Tiie Nation mourns at Washing- 
ton's Death. — The Capital changed to Washington Citj'. — Mrs. Adams's Experiences in 
Washington. 

It seems very odd now to think of the two heads of political par- 
ties, sharing the two highest offices between them. Very few men 



ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 



295 



manners, and opinion, than 




could be found more unlike in mind 
John Adams and Thomas 
Jefferson, yet one was 
president, and the other 
vice-president. T h e y 
agreed, however, in both 
being true patriots, with 
a sincere desire for the 
good of their country, 
even when they did not 
agree upon the measures 
by which they could best 
serve her, and that pre- 
served them from any 
great misunderstanding. 

The disputes between 
the Federalists and Re- 
publicans waxed hotter 
thaneverin John Adams's 
administration. In 1797 
the country came very 
near war with France, 
who was already at war 
with nearly every country in Europe. She now called herself a 
republic, and her brilliant young warrior, Napoleon Bonaparte, was 
leading her armies to victory from one battle-field to another. One 
of the first things President Adams did was to send an embassy to 
France to talk over her relations with the United States. Charles 
Coatesworth Pinckney was one of these ambassadors. The French 
ministry hinted to him that the United States might make matters 
smooth by paying a certain amount of money to them. " No," 
answered Pinckney, " Millions for defense, but not one cent for trib- 
ute," — meaning that they would rather spend millions of dollars to 
fit out ships and an army to defend the country, than pay one cent 
as a bribe to buy off the war with which they were threatened. 

When war seemed to be close at hand the United States began 
fitting out a navy, and gathering together an army. Washington 
was called on to be the commander, and again came forward at the 
call of his country. What a wonderful story history might have to 
tell, if Washington had fought in a campaign against the armies of 



iffmyofmiJ 



296 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Napoleon Bonaparte. But this did not happen. War was not fully 
decided upon, and finally the cloud passed over, and there was fair 
weather again. 

Only a few months after the country had heard the news that 
their beloved commander-in-chief was ready to lead its armies, in 
the event of a war with France, came the news of his sudden death. 
Georfje Washington was dead ! The news struck a chill to all hearts. 
The father of his countr3% the beloved leader of the people, covered' 
with honors and mourned by a grateful nation, was borne to his tomb. 
The whole people wore mourning, "and a united voice of lamentation 
went up for him all over the land. In England and France the 
highest honors were paid to his memory. Many ships of the Eng- 
lish fleet wore their flags at half-mast. Napoleon Bonaparte or- 
dered the banners of the French Republic to be decorated with- 
crape. Wherever the name of Washington was sj)oken, it was 
mentioned with tender and profound reverence. 

In 1800 the national capital was changed. When Washington 
was made president, the seat of government was in New York city. 
In his second year it had been moved to Philadelphia, where the 
Colonial Congress had held its meetings. But it was finally decided 
that the capital ought to be farther south, on the banks of the Poto- 
mac. Accordingly a site was chosen, a president's mansion was built 
there, and a national capitol begun in the new city of Washington. 
It Avas in winter weather when President Adams went down with 
his wife to begin housekeeping in the new edifice which the United 
States had built for its presidents. Mrs. Adams was a thrifty 
housewife, and capable of making the best of things, but she found 
Washington a rough place, and a great change from New York and 
Philadelphia. Except the new public buildings, there was hardly 
a house in sight. A few poor huts where the laborers liv^ed who 
had been engaged on the buildings, and a drear}^ expanse of thick 
forests, were all she could see from the windows of the cold and 
cheerless mansion. Although wood was so plenty, they could 
hardly get laborers to cut it, and they could not burn coal, because 
there were no grates in the house. Poor Mrs. President ! she was 
afraid they could not keep warm enough to drive off the ague ; and 
she says, no doubt thinking regretfully^ of Philadelphia, or her own 
dear Boston : " This is indeed a neio country." Remember this 
was the capital of our republic in the first year of the century. 

President Adams was not re-elected a second term. The Repub- 



JEFFERSON'S PRESIDENCY. 



297 



liean party was gi-owing stronger and stronger, and in 1801 elected 
Thomas Jefferson as its third president, and Aaron Burr of New- 
York as vice-president. 



CHAPTER IV. 



JEFFERSON'S PRESIDENCY. 

The Purcha.se of Louisiana. —The First Journey from Ocean to Ocean. — Lewis and Clarke's Ex- 
pedition. — The Sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. — The Great Pacific Ocean. — 
Return of Lewis and Clarke. 

The country had been growing richer and more prosperous every 
year since the war ended. Every year saw an increase in the tide 
of people going west to 
settle in the new lands 
beyond the Ohio River. 
A rich farming country 
Avas opening up, under 
the plows of the thrifty 
settlers, all the way from 
Ohio to Mississippi Ter- 
ritory. In the very first 
year of Jefferson's rule, 
the Territory of Ohio 
came to urge her claim to 
be made a State. Con- 
gress voted in her favor, 
and a new star, to repre- 
sent the State of Ohio, 
was put in the flag of the 
Union. 

There was always some 
anxiety about the Mis- 
sissippi valley. You 
know the Spanish still 
owned Louisiana, and that territory extended up the river from New 
Orleans, as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, where Hennepin had 
explored. . 

New Orleans was now a large town, well protected by forts guard- 
ing the mouth of the Mississippi. St. Louis was a snug settlement of 





298 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

log cabins where dwelt a company of French fur traders with their 
Indian wives, whose children, speaking a mixture of the French and 
Indian tongues, could be seen playing beside the waters of the muddy 
Missouri. 

Spain had recently ceded Louisiana to France, and France needed 
money to carry on her wars. So when President Jefferson, who 
was on very good . terms with France, offered fifteen millions of 
dollars for her possession in North America, Napoleon accepted 
the offer, and the bargain was ratified at once. Jefferson believed 
in a good large country Avith no troublesome neighboi's at tlie back 
door, such as we might have had if the Spaniards or the French 
had kept the Mississippi River. Thus by peaceful purchase Ave got 
the great territory of Louisiana and the towns of New Orleans, St. 
Louis, and all the trading posts and forts situated on the great river. 
The Spaniards still kept the peninsula of Florida, the land they had 
first settled in North America. 

Jefferson offered the governorship of Louisiana to Lafayette, who 
was then living on his estate in France, but Lafayette refused, be- 
cause he was unwilling to abandon his own country. Tlierefore, Gen- 
eral Wilkinson, a soldier who had served with Gates in his campaign 
against Burgoyne, was made governor of the new Territor3\ 

As soon as his purchase was complete, Jefferson was eager to 
explore the new country we had gained. At this time nobody knew 
any tiling about a route across the continent. There Avas a romantic 
account by a man named Jonathan Carver, who had journeyed across 
the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But Avitli the excep- 
tion of this solitary traveler, it AA^as not knoAvn that any one had 
ever explored the country from one ocean to another. Jefferson 
planned such a journey, and began to look about for men to under- 
take it. 

He had a private secretary, named Captain Merriweather Lewis, 
a very quiet man, but a man of undaunted resolve and great enthu- 
siasm for science. To him and to Captain Clarke, Avho had been a 
soldier in several Indian campaigns, the president finally intrusted 
his project. These tAvo leaders Avent to St. Louis, in the Avinter of 
1803-4, and there collected a party of forty or fifty men, and all 
necessaries for their journey, — the first journey across the American 
continent. 

They started up the muddy Avaters of the Missouri in little boats. 
Part of the boats Avorked by sails, part of them by oars. When the 



JEFFEllSON'S PRESIDENCY. 



299 



current was too powerful to be stemmed by oars, they tied their boats 
by ropes to the trees, and worked them up by the capstan. They 
made their way slowly, and only reached the territory of the Mandan 
Indians, somewhere in Northern Dakota, wlien cold weather set 
in, and they found themselves winter bound among the savages. 
For six months they stayed there, living in rude huts which they 
had built, passing the time in hunting and fishing, or studying the 
habits of their Indian neighbors. 

In spring, when the ice broke up, the canoes were put in order, 
and they set out once more. Hitherto they had once in a while 
met French traders from Canada, or British traders from Hudson's 
Bay, seeking furs of the Indians, but now they began to enter a 
wilderness where no foot of white man had ever trodden. 




The Untrod Prairie. 



Their plan was to follow the Missouri to its source, and from 
thence to strike the source of the Columbia River, which the Indians 
had told Lewis was only separated by a low ridge of the Rocky 
Mountains from the head waters of the Missouri. Had they taken 
any of the branches of the Missouri, they might have spent months 
of fruitless search, and perhaps given up their journey. But Lewis 
had the scent of a sleuth hound for the right track, and led them 
on with unerring sagacity. 

On they went, around the great falls, througli. the bold rock called 
" Gate of the Mountains," up the Jefferson Fork, till the river, 



300 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

growing narrower and narrower, wonld no longer float even their 
light canoes. Then they took the boats on their backs, and walked 
beside the stream. One day one of the men put one foot on each 
side the narrow rippling waters, and thanked God that he had lived 
to bestride the Missouri River. When, a little later, they reached 
the chaste, clear fount from which bubbled the first drops of the 
mighty stream, every one drank in silent thankfulness for their suc- 
cess so far. Only a little mountain ridge divided the waters of the 
gi'eat river of the east from the river of the west. They could stand 
upon the crest and toss a pebble one way into waters that flowed 
to the Atlantic, and the other into waters flowing to the Pacific. 
When they reached the Columbia, drinking from its fountain, tliey 
cried aloud that they quaffed the waters of the Pacific Ocean. 

As soon as they reached a point where they could embark their 
canoes on the Columbia, they proceeded with breathless rapidity 
over its dangerous rapids to the ocean. But their enthusiasm was 
damped by the greeting the Pacific coast gave them. It was in the 
rainy season, and the ocean of their hopes was covered with impene- 
trable fogs. For days and weeks the rain fell in steady torrents 
till the leather of their waterproof tents rotted to the consistency of 
brown paper. Their clothes were never dry. They suffered from 
wet, cold, and want of proper food, but in spite of all kept their 
health and spirits. On their return, they wore Indian hunting 
shirts, deer-skin leggings, and moccasins instead of shoes. They 
were bronzed almost as dark as Indians. When Lewis wished to 
prove that he was a white man, he had to strip up his sleeve to 
show the original color of his skin. In this guise they landed at 
St. Louis in Jul}^ 1806. 

" Never did any similar event," writes President Jefferson, " ex- 
cite more joy in the United States." Every citizen of the nation 
felt a glow of pride in his newly enlarged country, so rich, bound- 
less, and romantic. It was the first journey across that continent 
where now the Pacific Railway winds across the two great mount- 
ain ranges to the western ocean. 



WAR WITH ALGERINE PIRATES. 301 

CHAPTER V. 

WAR WITH ALGERINE PIRATES. 

Pirates of the Mediterranean Sea. — Demands of these Sea Robbers on United States. — Gen- 
eral Eaton's Interview with the Bey of Tunis. — Roj'^l Beggars. — War declared. — Daring 
Feat of Decatur. — The Philadelphia burned in the Harbor of Tripoli. — The Bashaw 
Hamet. — End of War. 

While we were thus broadening our territories at home, we were 
having trouble abroad with no less formidable enemies than Alger- 
ine pirates who infested the Mediterranean Sea, and all the coasts 
of southern Europe. The Barbary States, you know, comprise the 
countries of Algiers, ]\Torocco, Tunis, and Tripoli, and are formed 
of a narrow strip of land in northeastern Africa. They are inhabited 
by Moors, Turks, Arabs, and a sprinkling of Jews. The principal 
religion is that of Mohammed, and they were sworn enemies to all 
Christian nations. For years the pirates of the Barbary States, or, 
as they were generally called, " Algerine pirates," had been a terror 
to every merchant vessel who came to trade with the countries near 
the Mediterranean. Any unlucky ship, which found itself near the 
Atlantic coast of Africa, might see at any moment an odd-looking 
boat with long lateen sails, swooping down upon her from some 
sheltered inlet or harbor, where she had lain at watch for her prey. 
In a twinkling she would sail alongside the merchantman, gi'apple 
her, drop her long sails over the vessel's side, and a host of swarthy, 
turbaned Moors, with bare, sharp sabres held between their teeth, 
belts stuck thick with knives and pistols, would come swarming over 
from sails and rigging, boarding their prize from all sides at once. 
The merchantman, with a crew untrained to lighting, would surren- 
der. Every man on board would be made prisoner, and carried to 
Algiers or Tripoli to be held for the payment of a large ransom. If 
this sum were not paid they were sold as slaves in the public market- 
places. 

It is wonderful, when we read of this thing, to see the terror in 
which these miserable, half clad pirates held half a.dozen European 
nations. Italy feared them as a mouse fears a cat ; Holland and 
Sweden trembled at the name of Algiers ; Denmark paid them 
yearly a large tribute ; the only nation of whom they stood in awe 
was England. For her, they had some respect, as one of their 
proverbs, " as hard-headed as an Englishman," testifies. 



302 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

When the pirates found America had become an independent 
nation, they immediately made demands on the government to pay 
them tribute. The Emperor of Morocco, Dey of Algiers, Bey of 
Tunis, and Bashaw of Tripoli (such were the high sounding 
titles of these squalid potentates) all thought they had found a 
new nation weak enough to submit to their piratical demands. 
And at first the United States did submit in the most astonishing 
manner. They sent consuls to the Barbary States to arrange on 
the amount of money or presents to be given these rulers to buy 
their favor and exempt our ships from their plunder. General 
Eaton, an officer who had served in the Revolutionary War, was 
one of these consuls, and very indignant he was at the manner in 
which his government submitted to the demands of these barbarians. 
When he called to see the Bey of Tunis, he was ordered to take off 
his shoes in the anteroom, and enter in his stocking feet. When 
he approached the bey in the stifling little den only eight by twelve, 
which served for grand audience chamber, he was ordered to " kiss 
his majesty's hand." " Having performed this ceremony," says the 
bluff old soldier, " we were allowed to take our shoes and otlier 
property and depart, without any other injury than the humiliation 
of being obliged in this way to violate one of God's commandments 
and offend common decency." 

These potentates of Barbary were constantly begging. They asked 
for ships, gunpowder, arms, cloth, and jewels from our consuls. 
General Eaton says, while he lived in the consulate at Tunis, not 
only the bey, but his minister and half a dozen officers of his court, 
sent for their coffee, spices, sugar, and other groceries, to the Ameri- 
can house, demanding it as tribute. Once the bey saw there a 
handsome looking-glass, for which he sent next day, and the Ameri- 
can consul could do no better than pack it off to him. If he refused 
to comply with an}^ demand, the bey threatened to let his pirates 
loose on the American trading vessels. Here is a specimen of the 
letters sent b}^ this prince of pirates to the Danish consul. 

" On account of the long friendship subsisting between us we 
take the liberty .to give you a commission for sundry articles, naval 
and military, which I find indispensable. I give 3'ou six months to 
answer this letter, and one year to forward the goods. And re- 
member, if we do not hear from you we know what steps to take.'''' 

As demand followed demand, and our consuls found it was like 
filling a bottomless tub with water to satisfy these fellows, they be- 
gan to demur. 




20 



WAR WITH ALGERINE PIRATES. 305 

" When will these demands end ? " asked United States Consul 
Cathcart of the Bashaw of Tripoli. " Never ! They will never be at 
an end," answered the bashaw, coolly. " Then I will declare war 
on my own responsibility," said the consul. And so finally war was 
declared. 

The United States sent Commodore Edward Preble with a fleet 
to Tripoli, and they arrived shortly after the pirates had captured 
the American ship Philadelphia. The officers and crew of the cap- 
tured vessel were taken to Tripoli and a ransom of five hundred 
dollars a head placed on each man. The Philadelphia was anchored 
in the harbor in plain sight of the town. 

One of the officers on Preble's ship, young Stephen Decatur, 
begged to be allowed to destroy the Philadelphia^ in order that the 
pirates might not be able to use her in their 
war against the United States. Permission was 
given him, and Decatur took a party of picked 
men and started on his adventure. He first 
captured a boat belonging to the pirates 
which was loaded with a cargo of women slaves 
they were sending to the markets of Constanti- 
nople. This vessel he fitted up and new bap- 
tized The Intrepid. She sailed into the harbor 
of Tripoli one midnight with all her crew, Lieutenant Decatur. 
except the man at the helm, lying flat on their faces on the deck. 
The ship was hailed, but her captain gave plausible answers till 
they reached the side of the Philadelphia. In a moment Decatur 
and his crew had boarded her, and throwing over the deck pitch, 
tarred cloth, and all sorts of combustibles, set fire to her. Before 
the enemy had recovered from their surprise, the Intrepid with all 
sails spread was outside the harbor, which was lighted up as brightly 
as noonday by the burning ship. Decatur lost not one man, while 
the Tripolitans lost twenty, or nearly that number, who were sur- 
prised on the ship, and part of whom were drowned from leaping off 
the burning vessel. 

In the mean time General Eaton went to Egypt and found Bashaw 
Hamet, a brother of the reigning Bashaw of Tripoli, who claimed 
that he was the rightful prince of Tripoli, and promised General 
Eaton that he would forever keep peace with the Americans if he 
would aid him in recovering his throne. Eaton had only a hand- 
ful of men with him, yet with the force of Moors and Arabs which 




306 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Hamet succeeded in raising, they started overland from Egypt to 
Tripoli to subdue this barbarous empire and re- 
cover his throne for Hamet. The little force actu- 
ally laid seige to, and captured the city of Derne, 
the most eastern town in Tripoli. At this moment, 
however, peace was made between the reigning 
bashaw and the United States ; General Eaton was 
obliged to give up the town, while poor Hamet, who 
found himself worse off than before, was left with- 
out a kingdom or even a home. 

The American valor in this war had the good 

Moham-^edan Soid.er ^g^^^ ^^ couviuciug the piratcs that the United 

States was not a country to be trifled with. They said we were 
too much like the English, and for the present no more demands 
were made for either ships or jewels as presents, by these autocrats 
of the seas. 




CHAPTER VI. 

JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM. 

Aaron Burr's Duel with Hamilton. — Hamilton's Death. — Burr's Disgrace. — First Steam- 
boat on the Hudson. — Fulton's Triumph. — The Great Event of Jefferson's Administration. 

When Jefferson's first four years of office expired, he was elected 
for another term. George Clinton was made vice-president, in place 
of Aaron Burr, who had been getting into disgrace. You have heard 
something about Burr early in the Revolutionary War, when he 
marched up with Arnold to take the fortress of Quebec. He did 
good service then and afterwards in the war, and in the early days 
of the republic was thought to be a brave soldier and a brilliant 
statesman. 

Washington did not like or trust Aaron Burr, however, and 
Washington's friend and secretary of war. Colonel Alexander Ham- 
ilton, liked him even less, and did not trust him at all. Hamilton 
more than any one had opposed Burr in all his political schemes, 
and there was a strong feeling between the two men, although 
up to the last of Burr's vice-presidency they had not quarreled 
outright. 

In those days, duels were common. If a man felt himself insulted 



JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM. 



307 



he challenged his foe to meet him in mortal combat, and the two 
stood up with pistols and 
fired at each other till one 
or the other fell. Hamilton 
himself had already lost a 
sou in a duel, and ought to 
have been brave enough to 
have set his face against 
such foolish wickedness. 
Yet, when Burr, in a fit 
of anger, challenged him, 
Hamilton accepted it, and 
the two men went out to 
meet each other in this cold- 
blooded manner, which they 
called an affair of honor. 
They met on Weehawken 
Heights, opposite New York 
city on the Jersey shore. 
Hamilton fired his pistol 
into the air, and made no 
effort to kill his opponent; 
but Burr aimed deliberately, and Colonel Hamilton fell with a 
mortal wound in his side. 

Notwithstanding dueling Avas fashionable among military men 
and men of the world, the death of Alexander Hamilton, who was 
so much beloved, and had been a faithful servant of his country, 
seemed to awake the whole country to a sense of the horror of such 
a deed. Burr was denounced as a murderer, and from that moment 
he sank in public estimation, never to rise again. 

If Burr had possessed sufficient manhood to retrieve his past 
errors, he might easily have done so. He had still many friends, 
and he had been gifted by nature with the power of Avinning love 
and confidence. But he was a restless, ambitious, scheming man, 
and his bitter disappointment at the failure of his political career 
made him false and unprincipled. For a time he was absent in a 
tour through the West, and little was heard of him, except accounts 
of his visits in western cities, and of his being entertained like a 
prince in the houses of wealthy western friends. 

All at once the report burst like a thunderclap upon the counti.'y, 




308 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



that Aaron Burr was secretly plotting to invade Louisiana, seize 

New Orleans, stir up a re- 
bellion in the Western 
States, hreak up the 
Union, and make himself 
emperor in the domains 
he had gained by treason. 
All the country was filled 
with excitement. Burr 
was arrested and tried 
for treason in Richmond. 
Nothing could be proven 
against him. He ex- 
plained in defense that 
he was intending to in- 
vade Mexico, and the 
Spanish possessions in 
America, in case of a war 
with Spain, which then 
was threatened. Whether 
he was guilty or innocent 
could not be decided from 
the evidence brought forward, and he was finally acquitted. But 
the once brilliant Aaron Burr, third vice-president of the United 
States, was from thenceforth a disgraced and ruined man, and his 
name ranked next to that of Benedict Arnold in ignominy, and 
the contempt of all good patriots. 

The trial of Burr was the most important political event of 
Jefferson's second term. But the greatest event in his whole ad- 
ministration was now at hand. Let me tell you what it was. 

One day in September, 1807, a crowd of people were assembled 
on one of the piers of Hudson River in New York city, to see an 
extraordinary boat set out on a voyage. The boat was not to be 
carried by oars or sails, but by stemn, a wonderful new means of 
locomotion, which James Watts of England had done much to 
bring into use as a motive power, and which many scientific men in 
Europe and America had been experimenting with during the last 
half centur3^ The enterprising American who had built the strange 
new boat now about to start upon its trial trip, was Robert Fulton 
of Pennsylvania. He had started out in life as an artist, had painted 




JEFFERSON'S SECOND TERM. 



309 



a few tolerable pictiires, but finally gave up art, and went to France 

to experiment there in many inventions with which his fertile brain 

teemed. Fortunately he 

met in Paris, Robert 

Livingston, whom Jef- 
ferson had sent as minis- 
ter. Fulton told him 

about a pet project of his 

to make boats move 

through the water by 

steam. The idea was 

not an original one with 

Fulton. Many others 

had experimented with 

steam, and twenty years 

earlier, an American 

named John Fitch had 

actually succeeded in 
propelling boats by steam 
in regular trips for sev- 
eral weeks, on the Dela- 
ware River from Phila- 
delphia to Trenton. But 
for want of money, pow- 
erful influence, and other 

adverse causes. Fitch had failed to establish steamboat navigation 
and for years all attempts to make it successful had been dropped. 
Fulton was poor, as ]nost great inventors have been, but Livingston 
furnished him with money, and the result of their combined efforts 
was the steamboat lying off the pier on the Hudson on this afternoon 
in September, 1807, ready to make her first trip to Albany. You can 
fancy what anxiety Fulton felt on this momentous day. On the dock 
the crowd of people, disbelieving in such a miracle as the moving a 
ship by steam, laughed and jeered at Fulton and his foolish under- 
taking. As the piston began to move slowly up and down, the 
wheels to splash up the water on the pier, and the boat to move 
away, how the people nnist have wondered. I fancy Fulton's heart 
must almost "liave stopped beating. She went on bravely, scaring 
all the other boats out of her track. They burned pine wood in those 
days, instead of coal, and as it grew dark the smoke pipe sent up a 




aio 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



glittering column of sparks. The people on the baiiks of the Hudson, 
who had not heard of this new monster of the seas, as they beheld her 




Fitch's Philadelphia and Trenton Packet. 



passing by in the evening, thought it was some supernatural appear- 
ance, and many declared it was not the work of man but of Satan. 




Fulton's Clermont Steamer 



After all, the thing was a success. It went to Albany at the rate 



MADISON'S PRESIDENCY. 



311 



of five miles an hour, and forced people to believe in the power of 
steam to propel vessels. Fulton thought that in time a boat might 
reach six miles an hour, but probably never more than six. Now, 
our great Hudson River steamboats go to Albany at the rate of 
twenty miles an hour. 

Am I not right in calling this the greatest event of Jefferson's 
administrations ? Wars, treaties, and political intrigues, become small 
in importance when compared with such wonderful inventions as the 
steamboat and telegraph. 



CHAPTER Vn. 



MADISON'S PRESIDENCY. 



Character of Madison. — Teciimseh. — William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana. — The 
Visit of Tecuniseh. — The Prophet. — Battle of Tippecanoe. — Impressment of American 
Sailors on Englisli Ships. — The Leopard and Chesapeake. — War declared against England. 
— Flogging of an American Sailor. — War Feeling in United States. 

The country did a very good thing for itself when it made 
James Madison of Virginia its president. He was a near and dear 
friend of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, and like him a 
Republican in politics. 
Quiet, and rather re- 
served in his manner, he 
was a man who gained 
the respect and confidence 
even of those who did not 
agree with him. Almost 
always dressed in plain 
black broadcloth, he 
looked, as he was, a plain, 
scholarly, unpretending 
gentleman. The ten- 
dency to fine clothes and 
bright colors in the dress 
of men, was fast wear- 
ing out in this republic. ^ 
There was a striking con- f^^.,:^^ ^^^..L^^r^^ 
trast between the inau- / 
guration dress of John Adams — a lavender colored broadcloth, 




312 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

with wliite silk stockings, — and the plain black suit of Madison, 
made from cloth manufactured in the United States. 

When Madison took his seat in the presidential chair there was 
peace and prosperity in the country. But there was a strong pros- 
pect that peace would not be long continued. The Indians on the 
border had been very quiet since Anthony Wayne subdued them, 
but now there were symptoms of gathering trouble among them. 
There had arisen among the Shawnee Indians a chief of superior 
intellect and far-sightedness to the rest of his race. He was en- 
deavoring to stir up the Indians to resist the constant invasion of the 
white man ; to prevent them from being pushed off their pleasant 
hunting-grounds, and driven farther and farther west. This man's 
name was Tecumseh. Tecumseh in Indian dialect means " Flying 
Tiger," or " Tiger leaping at his prey." 

Indiana, where Tecumseh's tribe lived, had just been divided from 
Michigan and Illinois, and made a Territory. Its governor was 
William Henry Harrison, who had been one of the officers in 
Wayne's campaign against the Indians. Harrison had bought a 
piece of land on the Wabash River from the chiefs of Tecumseh's 
tribe, and was about to take possession of it. When Tecumseh 
heard of this, he came with an armed band of warriors to the settle- 
ment where the governor lived, and told him he wished to talk with 
him about the purchase. Governor Harrison asked him to enter his 
house, but Tecumseh refused. The air of the white man's dwelling 
stifled him. He wanted to speak in the open air. 

When they were all assembled, one of Harrison's officers asked 
the chief to sit beside the governor, saying, " Tecumseh, your father 
requests you to seat yourself." 

The savage repeated contemptuously, " My father ! The sun is 
my father. The earth is my mother. On her bosom I will rej^ose," 
and seated himself on the ground. 

In simple and eloquent speech Tecumseh laid his cause for com- 
plaint before the governor. He declared that the lands of the broad 
West belonged to all the Indian tribes in common ; that one tribe 
had no right to sell a tract without the sanction of all the others. 
Harrison laughed at this claim ; he answered him that the tribes 
spoke different languages and were different nations ; that his bar- 
gain with the Shawnees was a just one ; and he should keejj the 
land. In the middle of his speech Tecumseh started to his feet 
with raised war-club. At the same moment the other warriors also 
started up with cries of rage, brandishing their weapons. 



JEFFERSON'S TRESIDENCY. 313 

Harrison and his men, many of them unarmed, snatched whatever 
was nearest at hand to defend themselves. The Indians cfrew 
cahner, and the storm passed over without bloodshed. Tecumseh 
said he was sorry for his violence, and declared he was willing to 
have peace if the whites would leave him undisturbed in the posses- 
sion of the land. 

The meeting ended without further result. But from that time 
Harrison feared at any time an (^)utbreak of the Indians. Tecum- 
seh, filled with the idea of union between all the tribes — a noble 
idea and worthy of a more civilized hero — journeyed from tribe to 
tribe trying to form a confederation. He visited the Cherokees, the 
Creeks, the Choctaws, all intelligent and warlike tribes, and was 
untiring in his efforts to inspire them with his spirit. 

While Tecumseh was absent he left the tribe under the control 
of his twin brother, who was known among the savages as " The 
Prophet." He pretended to be able to foretell future events, and to 
be aided by powers from the Great Spirit, which would enable him 
to bring his people victory in war. The savages had great rever- 
ence for the Prophet, and believed devoutly in all that he professed 
to do. At this time Harrison was constantly hearing rumors of 
threatened uprising among the people of the Prophet. These ru- 
mors decided him at length to go and break up their town, which 
was on the Tippecanoe, a branch of the Wabash River, not far from 
the governor's fort. He accordingly led his forces through the for- 
ests and marshes to the banks of the river, and there fought the 
Prophet and his men, driving them from their town, and scattering 
them over the country. When Tecumseh returned from his patri- 
otic journey, he found the tribe broken up and dispersed, his plans 
fruitless, and could only vow future vengeance against his enemies. 
He knew the Americans were on the point of war with England 
again, and inflaming all the Indians who would listen to him with 
his own desire for revenge, he hastened to offer himself and his 
warriors to the British officers, to fight against tlie United States. 
This trouble with the Indians broke out in the fall of 1811, and in 
June of the next year, this country, for a second time, declared 
war with England. In order that you may understand the cause 
of this, I must relate to you a few events that had been leading to 
war, almost ever since the nation had been independent of British 
rule. 

It was hardly to be expected that Great Britain should give up 



314 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

her American colonies, which had been such a source of wealth to 
her, without a good deal of bitter feeling. Ever since the Constitu- 
tion was formed, and the American merchant-ships began their trade 
with Europe, England, who called herself the mistress of the ocean, 
and prided herself on owning the finest nav}^ on the globe, had done 
everything she could to injure American commerce. The United 
States, who wished for peace, and were reluctant to go to war again, 
had borne much, both from France and England, in submissive 
silence. But one wrong had aroused the people more than any- 
other. This was the impressment of Americans, to serve as sailors 
on English ships. Let me explain to you what this means. It had 
long been the custom in England to fill u|) their ship's crews by a 
method called " impressment." When they could not get men to 
enlist readily as sailors, a party of rough men, called a " press-gang," 
would go on shore, and, upon meeting any sturdy, healthy looking 
young fellow, would seize him as their prize. Sometimes they 
greeted him jovially, and persuaded him to drink with them, then 
they plied him either with liquor or drugs, till they could carry him 
off insensible to their ship ; sometimes they knocked their victim 
over the head, stunned him, and carried him off in that way. When, 
he recovered from his stupor, he found himself on the sea, away 
from home and friends, perhaps from wife and children, bound on a 
voyage which might last years. If he refused to work the ship, he 
was lashed to a mast and beaten almost to death with a rope's end. 
The "press-gang" was at one time almost as much dreaded in 
Europe as the plague. IVIany a homely ballad has told the fate of a 
poor fellow thus torn from all that was dear in life by the horrible 
" press-gang," The impressment of its hero was also one of the 
thrilling incidents of many of the novels of that time. 

You see now what the word impressment means. What will you 
say when I tell you that at the time war was declared against Eng- 
land, it was alleged that there were 6,000 free-born Americans who 
had been seized from American vessels to serve on English war ships. 
And the cruelty and horrors of an English war ship of three quarters 
of a century ago have never been told. If the captain were a bad 
man — and the English navy captain of this day seems to have been 
specially prone to brutality — he had ever}' chance to abuse his 
power. No eastern despot, on his throne, surrounded by crowds of 
cringing subjects, had more autocratic sway than a ship's captain, 
out on the broad ocean, over the crew he commanded. 



JEFFEUSON'S PRESIDENCY. 315 

Again iind again had a merchant vessel from America been 
stopped on the high seas by a stont man-of-war, and a boat sent to 
search her for English seamen. In vain wonld the captain and men 
protest they were Americans by birth and residence. The crew 
were overhauled, all the stout, strong men were declared to be Eng- 
lishmen, and carried off to serve Great Britain. Once on board, if 
they refused to work they were flogged. Many an American sailor, 
escaped from this slavery, showed great scars on his back which he 
bore to his dying day. 

In the last year of Jefferson's rule, a British vessel called the 
Leopard had met the American Cliesapeake commanded by Captain 
Barron, peacefully pursuing its course on the seas. The Leopard 
ordered the American to stop, and be searched for English seamen. 
The Chesapeake answered that she had no English sailors on board, 
and very properly refused to stop. On this the British ship opened 
fire on the American, killing and wounding part of the crew, and 
disabling the vessel. Unprepared for fight. Captain Barron was 
obliged to pull down his flag and allow his ship to be overhauled. 
Three American -born sailors were taken off the vessel and forced to 
serve a nation whom they detested. Such outrages as these were 
enough to stir up war feeling in the mildest and most Quaker-like 
nation. 

In spite of these wrongs, however, the threat to go to war with 
England was opposed by a large party in the United States. This 
was the Federalist party, who when they found the Republicans 
wanted war, set their faces against it with all the bitterness of party 
hatred. They saw in the war feeling of Jefferson, Madison, and the 
Republicans, a desire to go against England, in order that they 
might deliver the United States up to France, who was then at war 
with England. The man who led the Federalists in their hue and 
cry against war was Josiah Quincy, one of the ablest men of Massa- 
chusetts. He well represented his State, which was very largely 
opposed to Madison's policy. Connecticut and nearly all New Eng- 
land followed the lead of Quincy and his State, and during the next 
three years divided the country on the subject. The South and 
West favored war, and Henry Clay, a young man from Kentucky, 
who had already made his musical, ringing voice heard in the na- 
tion's councils, took the lead of the Republicans against Quincy and 
the Federalists. Another rising man from Carolina, named John 
C. Calhoun, took the part of Madison and the war measures. 



316 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Thus matters stood when in June, 1812, President James Madi- 
son declared war with Great Britain. 

On the decks of the British war ships, thousands of impressed 
American sailors who joyfully heard the news, stood up and refused 
to pull another rope on board the ship of a nation at war with their 
* own country. They were flogged, — some of them till death 
released them from torture, — but the larger portion held out. 
"Will you do your duty on this ship," asked one captain of an 
American who was suffering under the lash for refusal to work 
the ship. " Yes, sir," answered Ihe man, with his back bleeding at 
every pore. " It is my duty to blow up this ship, an enemy to my 
country, and if I get a chance I '11 do it." 

The captain looked round in astonishment. " I think this man 
must be an American," he said. " No English sailor would talk like 
that. He is probably crazy, and you may untie him and let him 
go." 

Over twentj^-five hundred Americans who had been impressed and 
who thus refused to serve, were sent to Dartmoor prison in the Eng- 
lish county of Devonshire, where they were kept in most wretched 
imprisonment until the war closed. 



CHAPTER VIH. 

OPENING OF THE AVAR OF 1812. 

The Scene of War. — Hull's vSurrender of Detroit. — Disgrace of Hull. — The Chicago Massacre. 
— Young Winfield Scott. — Defeat on all Sides. 

The United States had reason now to be thankful for the war 
with the Barbary j)irates, for that war had in- 
duced them to take measures to fit out a navy, 
and they had a few ships ready for war. 
" What ! " cried the Federalists, " fight with Eng- 
land on the sea. Expect that this new, weak 
navy of ours can hold out for one moment 
against the magnificent ships of England, which 
Felucca Gun-boat. yxAq tlic occaus of two hemispheres! It is mad- 
ness!" 

"Wait and see," answered the Republicans. "Wait and see," 
echoed young Decatur, who had burned the Philadelphia under the 
noses of the Tripolitans in their own harbor. "Wait and see," cried 




OPENING OF THE WAK OF 1812. 317 

hundreds of American seaman, burning to avenge the wrongs of 
their comrades, taken away from their native vessels under their 
very eyes. Let us also wait and see. 

The war of the Revolution had been, on the part of Great Brit- 
ain, a war for conquest and subjection. They had been able, during 
seven years, to introduce and maintain armies in the heart of our 
country in some of its largest cities, and they had also raviiged and 
laid waste our most populous farming districts. The War of 1812 
was very different from this. The struggle in nearly all cases was 
on our boundary lines ; along the borders of our great lakes, between 
the United States and Canada ; up and down the Atlantic coast ; 
and on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. Such a war, carried on 
in our lakes, and upon the sea-coasts, would be largely naval war- 
fare. Of course the English, with great faith in their navy, be- 
lieved the Americans could man no ships to beat them. Harassed 
on three sides by English fleets, while on the western border 
Tecumseh and his Indian allies would keep up a series of blood- 
thirsty attacks, the Americans, with a weak and ineffectual navy, 
would soon be worried into making a dishonorable peace, which 
would perhaps oblige them to give up much they had gained only 
a few years previously. This no doubt was the hope and belief of 
the English who favored the new war. 

The lighting began on the Canada border. General Hull, who 
had been one of Washington's officers, and was now governor of the 
Territory of Michigan, had taken command of the troops, which were 
to defend Detroit, and the borders of Lake Erie. Hull seems, from 
all accounts, to have been a man too timid in purpose, and too waver- 
ing in judgment, for a military commander. At first he marched 
boldly on towards Canada, crossed the river from Detroit, and entered 
the British possessions. Staying here for three weeks without ac- 
complishing anything, he inarched back again, and shut himself up in 
Detroit. There he waited till the English under command of Gen- 
eral Brock began crossing the river to attack the town. Brock had 
about 1,300 men, half of them Indians. Hull had only 800 men 
inside the walls, but they held a strong position, and believed they 
could hold the fort. On his approach Brock insolently threatened 
to let the Indians loose without restraint upon the garrison, if they 
refused to surrender. General Hull's fear of the tomahawk induced 
him to take a measure Avhich no excuses have been able to make ap- 
pear other than cowardly. He hung a white flag, the token of sub- 



318 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

mission, on his outer wall, and the fort, with all its stores of })rovis- 
ions, gunpowTler, arms, indeed the whole Territory of Michigan, was 
given to the enemy. This surrender was made jvithout consulting his 
officers and men, who were eager to fight. It is said that a large 
number of the men shed tears of mortification and anger, when they 
saw the white flag strung up on the walls. One officer broke his 
sword in pieces, and tearing his epaulettes from his shoulders, 
trampled them under foot, in his anger that he had been forced to 
disgrace his uniform by this surrender without striking a blow. 

A cry of dismay and indignation rose up against Hull all over the 
country. He was tried for treason, and acquitted ; but convicted 
of cow^ardice, and sentenced to death. The president pardoned him, 
however, and he lived from that time in retirement. He claimed 
to have surrendered, that he might save his army from the horrors 
of Indian slaughter, but it is generally believed that if he had not 
been overcome by his caution, he could have defended the fort and 
held it, against such numbers as attacked it. Humanity, the 
noblest of traits in a time of peace, is sometimes dangerous in the 
barbarous time of war. 

Hull's surrender of Detroit was in August, 1812. The very day 
before it took place, terrible events were happening on the banks of 
Lake Michigan, on the very spot where the city of Chicago now 
stands. Then only a wooden fort, surrounded by high walls, and 
one or two dwelling-houses, stood on those shores where a great busy 
city, stretching for miles along the lake, has since sprung up, as if 
by magic. 

In this wooden fort, called Fort Dearborn, was a garrison of 
about fifty men, commanded by Captain Heald. Besides the sol- 
diers, there were several women (wives of the officers and men), a 
number of children, and the family of Mr. Kinzie, who had built 
and lived in the solitary house which was close by the fort. There 
had been some threatenings from the Indians, and one friendly 
savage had warned the fort that the Pottawotamie tribe which was 
encamped all about them, was hostile. While Captain Heald was 
thinking what was best to be done, orders came from Hull to leave 
the fort and bring his garrison away in safety. He began to make 
plans for this, and gathered his boats on the shore to embark the 
whole party, and cross the lake to Michigan. Just as they were 
about to go on board their boats, had already left the protecting walls 
of their fort, and were on their way to the lake, part on foot, part on 



OPENING OF THE WAR OF 1812. 319 

• 

horseback, and the children in a large wagon, the yells of the sav- 
ages resounded in their ears, and they were surrounded by a band 
ten or twelve times their number. 

The sight of these warriors, striped with paint in various colors, 
naked to the waist, with belts stuck full of scalping knives, war- 
clubs, and tomahawks, hair stiffened till it stood erect like porcu- 
pine quills, uttering dreadful, ear-piercing yells, was enough to 
strike terror to brave hearts. But the forlorn little band fought for 
dear life, or rather like those who prefer death to the tortures of 
Indian capture. The women showed the same bravery and desper- 
ation as the men. The children, twelve in all, cowering together in 
one large wagon, were all tomahawked and scalped, by a hideously 
painted young savage who mounted on one of the wheels and dis- 
patched them all. In a few minutes from the time the attack began, 
two thirds of the party were killed. The remainder were taken 
prisoners and carried to the Pottawotamie camp. Most of these 
were afterwards ransomed and rejoined their friends. To-day the 
streets of Chicago bear the names of several of the victims of this 
slaughter. 

Hardly had the news of these misfortunes reached the ears of gov- 
ernment when we suffered another defeat at Niagara. General Van 
Rensselaer, of good Holland stock, as his name denotes, was stationed 
with his division at Lewiston, near Buffalo. He planned the taking 
of the English post, Queenstown, on the opposite shore of the river. 
The design was an able one, and he was aided in carrying it out 
by Lieutenant-colonel Winfield Scott, a brave young soldier, who 
came up just before the expedition started. Part of the soldiers 
crossed the river and had made a gallant attack. Success seemed 
close at hand, when the troops still remaining on the American 
shore refused to cross, and the attacking party, without reinforce- 
ments, were cut to pieces and the remnant captured. Young Scott 
fought like a tiger, and only when overpowered by numbers, he gave 
up his sword and was taken prisoner. He was a tall, elegant figure, 
and a proper mark for bullets. After he was taken, the Indians sur- 
rounded him, curious to examine his person, to see if it were possible 
that none of the shots they had fired at him had left their mark. 

Such were some of our defeats on the borders of Canada. In the 
West, General William Henry Harrison was meeting the fierce onsets 
of the Indians with courage, but with doubtful success. The Fed- 
eralists, opposed to war, welcomed every defeat with hardly less joy 

21 



320 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

than the British. We should have been once more at the mercy of 
England, if our victories elsewhere had not overpowered these de- 
feats and kept hope alive in the hearts of the Republicans. Let me 
tell you of the naval battles that had been fought and won while 
Hull's surrender, the Chicago massacre, and the defeat at Niagara, 
had been damping the spirits of the army. 



CHAPTER IX. 

VICTORIES ON THE OCEAN. 

The ConstUutiim beats the Guerriere. — The Wasp on a Frolic. — Decatur wins Fresh Laurels. 
— Flag of the Macedvninn presented to Jlrs. Madison. — Bainbridge and the Constitutwii. — 
British Anger at Defeat. 

About a fortnight before the surrender of General William Hull 
at Detroit, a vessel commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, a nephew of 
the over-cautious general, set sail from Boston harbor; His ship 
was the frigate Constitution, carrying fifty-four guns, and manned 
by as brave a body of men as ever handled gunpowder. They 
sailed north and cruised about near the entrance to the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, until one August evening, about six o'clock, they saw the 
British frigate Gruerriere not far away, making signals that she was 
ready to fight them. Captain Hull immediately put on all sail to 
bring his vessel close to the Englishman. 

" Is that an American ship ? " asked the English Captain Dacres, 
who had been watching her approach through his glass. 

" Yes, sir, I am sure she shows the American flag," answered the 
officer to whom Dacres had spoken. 

" I can hardly believe that an American ship would dare ap- 
proach with so much boldness," said Dacres, still looking doubtfully 
through his glass. 

In a few minutes his doubts were resolved. The Constitution 
drew near, till he could see plainly the stars and stripes at her 
mast-head. As soon as she approached, the Guerriere opened upon 
her with a terrible volley from all the guns on one side. Not a 
single gun was discharged on board the American. ship. Another 
broadside from the Gruerriere . poured into the Constitution, which 
still came on as silent as death. Hull's officers began to murmur, 
and asked him to let them return the fire. 



VICTORIES ON THE OCEAN. 321 

" Not yet," answered he, decidedly. 

Another officer came to report that a man had been killed at his 
gnn, which had not yet fired one shot at the enemy. 

" Shall we open npon them, captain ? " asked the officer. 

" Not quite yet," returned Hull, walking up and down the deck 
in intense excitement. 

Nearer and near drew the vessels together till they stood almost 
yard-arm to yard-arm. Then, with tremendous energy, the Ameri- 
can opened her guns, and over the deck of the Griierriere belched 
a fire so deadly that it swept it almost clean of men and officers, 
and left rivers of blood pouring in its track. Never was a fire more 
terrible. It seemed to wrap both ships in a garment of smoke and 
flame, and when it subsided a little, and the haze of the conflict 
rolled upward, the valiant Guerriere, with two masts fallen over- 
board, her sides torn with balls, lay a dismantled hulk at the mercy 
of the sea. The Constitution filled her sails and retired a short dis- 
tance to repair her rigging. She had been on fire once during the 
fight, but one* of her gallant officers had put out the flames before 
the vessel was injured. When she had put herself in order, she 
returned to the side of the Guerriere. The English flag had been 
shot down at the first fire, and brave Captain Dacres had nailed it 
firmly to the mast. It was now cut down, and the stars and stripes 
unfurled over the deck, slippery with the blood of the carnage. It 
was useless to try to bring the G-uerriere to port. She was a hope- 
less wreck. Captain Hull took his prisoners on board his own ship, 
and set fire to the conquered vessel. She burned like tinder, light- 
ing up the whole sky with lurid grandeur, and at last, exploding 
with a loud roar, sank to the bottom of the sea. This was just 
three days after Hull's surrender at Detroit, and such a victory as 
this did much to reconcile the country to defeat on land. 

On the 17th of October, just four days after the defeat at Niagara, 
where Winfield Scott was taken prisoner, a sloop of war named the 
Wasp was out in the Atlantic, four days' sail from land. Her com- 
mander was Captain Jones, who had been captured at Tripoli on the 
frigate Philadelphia, and been twenty months a prisoner among 
Barbary pirates. He bore a fortunate name in naval history, for it 
was that borne 'by John Paul Jones who commanded the Bon 
Homme Richard in Revolutionary days. This Captain Jones was 
not related to John Paul, however, except by the kinship of brave 
deeds. 



322 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

One Sunday morning, not long after sunrise, the Wasp fell in with 
the English war-sloop Frolic, having under convoy a fleet of mer- 
chant ships which she was guarding on their way home fi-om the 
West Indies. The Wasp began to gather herself up for an attack, 
and taking in all her loose canvas, made herself taut and fit for 
action. The Frolic did the same, although she had just weathered 
a heavy storm near the Indies, and was not in the best condition for 
fighting. It had been rough weather, and the sea rolled heavily, 
breaking against the ships, and making even the oldest sea-dogs stag- 
ger like landsmen, as they made their vessels ready. When at last 
word was given on both sides to begin, it seemed for a time uncer- 
tain which would come off conqueror. At the first onset the Wasp 
lost mast and rigging, and was pitched wildly about on the rough 
sea. But swinging round, she brought her side against the bows of 
the Frolic, and raked her from stem to stern with a fire that carried 
death to almost every man on deck. The crew of the Wasp, seeing 
themselves so near their enemy, could not be held back, but swarmed 
over the side of their vessel, boarding the Frolic with loud cheers of 
triumph. On her deck they found only one man at his post, the man 
at the wheel, who stoutly faced death there. The remaining offi- 
cers, most of them wounded, threw down their swords as the Amer- 
icans came on board, and Lieutenant Biddle of the Wasp himself 
cut down the English flag. It fluttered to the deck, and lay there, 
another trophy to the success of the American navy. 

The Frolic was terribly cut up by the fight. As they rested from 
the battle. Captain Jones saw a British man-of-war coming in sight. 
It was the Poitiers, a ship much larger than either of the two which 
had just been engaged. Jones's own ship was dreadfully battered, 
and her sails riddled with holes like a sieve. There was nothing 
for him but surrender, and the evening of the day which had seen 
him victor, saw him conquered, and a captive on the enemy's ship. 

This was only the 17th of October, and on the 25th another vic- 
tory roused rejoicing in America. This time it was Captain Deca- 
tur who won laurels for himself, — the same daring officer who 
sailed into the harbor of Tripoli in the Intrepid, and burned the 
Philadelphia under the very noses of the enemy. He commanded 
the ship United States, and when near the Azore Islands gave chase 
to the British frigate Macedonian. He not only chased, but over- 
took and captured her, and brought her as his prize into Newport 
harbor. As soon as he reached port, Decatur sent his lieutenant. 



VICTORIES ON THE OCEAN. 323 

young Hamilton, whose father was secretary of war, to announce 
the news of his success at Washington. Hamilton reached Wash- 
ington late in the evening, and found everybody had gone to a grand 
ball given in honor of the United States navy. Without waiting 
for any ceremony of toilet, he rushed to the ball-room, covered with 
the dust of travel, and told the good news to the president, and to 
his father, who welcomed his son with pride, as a participant in the 
battle. The tattered flag was carried into the ball-room, and pre- 
sented to Mrs. Madison, amid the cheers of the company. 

One more naval victory I must relate to you, and then for the 
present I have done. This was another triumph of the good ship 
Coiisfitution, who seems to have had more than her share of honor. 
Hull had given up her command to another brave officer, Commo- 
dore Bainbridge, who had seen good service at sea when we were at 
war with Barbary pirates. He sailed the Constitution from Boston 
to the West India Islands, and there fell in with his British 
majesty's ship Java^ on her way to the east. She was well manned, 
and mounted nearly fifty guns, but found herself no match for the 
Constitution. In less than two hours after the firing began, she 
lowered her flag, and Bainbridge went on board a conqueror. On 
the deck lay Captain Lambert of the Java, supported in the arms 
of his oflicers, the blood oozing from a mortal wound. The Ameri- 
can captain approached, and returned his sword to the dying man, 
who had sent it to his conqueror in token of surrender. Bainbridge 
himself had two wounds in the leg, but refused to have them dressed 
till all was over. Like the Guerriere, the Java was a wreck past 
repair. After taking out her wheel to fit it into the Constitution^ 
which had been badly shattered in the conflict, the hulk of the con- 
quered ship was set on fire. 

I have given you now a brief account of four naval battles, all of 
which took place in 1812, the first year of the war, and six months 
after hostilities had begun. The Americans were hardly less sur- 
prised than the English at such victories. The belief that an Eng- 
lish man-of-war could not be beaten, had been the ruling idea ever 
since the days of Queen Elizabeth, when the English had conquered 
the great Spanish Armada. Now, to be beaten by a parcel of 
American built ships, manned by raw sailors ! It was too much for 
English dignity, and all their newspapers growled with wounded 
vanity, yet owned there was reason to fear that the future rule of 
Britannia on the seas might be periled by this upstart nation, — a 
rebel which she had once nursed in her bosom. 



824 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Another cause for astonishment to the English was the rapidity 
with which the Americans worked their guns, and the great disparity 
between the American and British killed and wounded. In the 
fight between the Constitution and Cruerrifre^ the Americans had 
seven killed and seven wounded ; the British, over eighty killed 
and wounded. In the capture of the Macedonian^ Decatur lost five 
men, and had seven wounded ; the British, over one hundred killed 
and wounded. In each battle the same great odds prevailed. The 
British had seen the wonderful shooting of the western riflemen in 
the Revolutionary War, — those daring fellows in buckskin shirts 
and leggings, who could hit the middle of the target at the longest 
distance every time they fired their guns. They declared now, that 
companies of these riflemen were stationed on the American ships 
to pick ofl' the English crew, since no ship's guns could fire with such 
aim. It was fully proved in these battles that the Americans ^fere 
superior to the English in gunnery. 



CHAPTER X. 

EVENTS OF 1813. 



Bounty on American Scalps. — The Slaughter at Frenchtown. — The Hornet meets the Pencock. 

— Lawrence takes command of the Chesapeake. — The Shannon challenges the Chesapeake. 

— Death of Lawrence. — " Don't give up the Ship." 

No British commander was more heartily hated by the Americans 
during the War of 1812 than General Proctor, who commanded the 
troops on the borders of Michigan. He had in his army a large 
body of Indian allies, and the dreadful mode of warfare which they 
pursued was said to be encouraged by Proctor. American scalps 
were paid for, as in new settlements a bounty is offered for the heads 
of wolves, or any wild animals whose ravages are dangerous. Many 
horrible stories are told of Proctor's insensibility and cruelty. He 
is accused of permitting the slaughter of the Americans, even after 
they had surrendered and begged for quarter, and of encouraging 
his Indian allies in their frightful massacres. It is only common 
charity to hope that these accusations are not all true. For a long 
time the slaughter at Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, was held up 
as one of the bloodiest deeds of all Proctor's bloody campaign. 
Frenchtown was a settlement built on both sides the river Raisin, and 



EVENTS OF 1813. 325 

was a peaceful, quiet little village, until the horrors of war came to 
disturb and destroy it. As soon as the English had taken Detroit, 
and were menacing all that part of Michigan, the people of French- 
town began to be alarmed for their safety. They sent to General 
Harrison's army, which was quartered in northern Ohio, asking 
their protection from Indian slaughter. A party of Harrison's 
troops went down, met the British near Frenchtown, drove them 
away, and guarded the little town. In the mean time General 
Winchester, one of Harrison's officers, marched to their aid with 
another body of men. Before he had joined the Americans at 
Frenchtown, Proctor came up with some British and Indians, sur- 
rounded them, and took Winchester prisoner. Proctor worked so 
on Winchester's fears for the safety of his comrades in Frenchtown, 
that he induced him to write an order for them to surrender them- 
selves to the British, before the Indians should set upon them and 
put them all to the tomahawk. The troops inside the town reluct- 
antly gave in to Winchester's commands, only stipulating that if 
they yielded themselves up as prisoners, their wounded men in the 
houses of the settlers should be well taken care of. Proctor prom- 
ised of course, and then went away, taking with him his large body 
of prisoners. The wounded were left behind to be ministered to by 
the people of the little village. 

A terrible anxiety hung over the place as it saw its protectors 
thus led away as prisoners of war. They feared an invasion of the 
savages who had been by night and day their constant dread. 
Their fears were more than justified. In less than twenty -four 
lioiirs the yelling savages, painted in their most hideous manner, 
entered the houses where lay the wounded Americans, and scalped 
them with the barbarity of demons. Some they killed at once, and 
so set them free from tlieir misery ; others they left half alive, in 
torturing agony. At the last they set fire to the houses, where the 
wounded lay, and burned their bodies in this funereal pile. Some 
of these very scalps torn from the heads of these victims, were car- 
ried to the British head-quarters as trophies of their faithfulness to 
the English arms. 

In this massacre on the Raisin perished some of the noblest sons 
of Kentucky — young men of birth and education. It roused the 
anger of the whole Northwest, and crowds of new recruits, eager to 
avenge their countrymen, came pouring in to join Harrison's army 
in Ohio. 



326 • STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

If you look on the map and trace the progress of the campaign in 
the North, you will find the struggle was confined to the borders of 
Lake Erie, beginning northwest at Detroit, and running southward 
along northern Ohio and New York, till it ended at Sackett's Har- 
bor. Harrison, with the western wing of the army, occupied Fort 
Meigs, on the Maumee River, and General Dearborn commanded 
the east wing resting at Sackett's Harbor. All the winter and 
spring of 1812 there was hard fighting on this border line, and many 
a deed of heroism made a bright spot in the midst of the general 
darkness and horror of war. 

In spite of the bravery and caution of General Harrison, backed 
by the Kentucky troops eager to avenge their slaughtered brethren ; 
in spite of the experience of General Dearborn, aided by the brave 
young Winfield Scott, the northern frontier was weak and poorly 
defended, and the victories which had thus far protected us from 
complete ruin, were our victories on the ocean. 

In January, 1813, the very month in which Proctor's Indians 
were slaughtering the unprotected people in Frenchtown, our ships 
in the Atlantic were seeking for new enemies to conquer. Captain 
James Lawrence commanded the Hornet., one of the vessels belong- 
ing to the command of Commodore Bainbridge, which was separated 
from its fleet, and was now cruising in the West Indies close to the 
small island of San Salvador. Here Lawrence met the English 
ship Peacock, which came up to give battle. The Hornet accepted 
the challenge with great alacrity, and buzzing about the Peacock, 
showed her stings with such effect, that in fifteen minutes the Eng- 
lish ship was a wreck. 

After her surrender it was found that she had several feet of 
water in her hold, and would sink, if something were not done to 
save her. Captain Lawrence took the officers and crew on board 
his own ship, except a dozen men, who stayed to see if they could 
not save the vessel. A few men from the Hornet went on board to 
assist in calking up the holes in the injured ship, and while they 
were thus at work the hulk sank, carrying down three men of the 
Hornet's crew, and nine of the Peacock. 

The generous way in which Lawrence treated his prisoners, won 
the hearts of the British, while his bravery won the praises of his 
countrymen. His name was set beside those of Jones, Decatur, 
Hull, and Bainbridge. 

When Lawrence came to Boston harbor after taking the Pea- 



EVENTS OF 181.3. 327 

eoclc, a new ship was assigned to bini. You remember the Chesa- 
peake, who had been fired into by the Leopard when she refused to 
be searched for English seamen ? It was this ship which now fell 
to Lawrence's command. The Cltesapeake had borne the name of 
an " unlucky ship " ever since the day when the first blood spilt in 
this war had stained her decks. Nearly all the sailors in the navy 
had a good deal of reluctance to ship on board her. With the usual 
superstition of sailors, they were wont to say that " sooner or later 
the Chesapeake would come to a bad end." 

Flushed and happy from his recent victory, the gallant Lawrence 
took command of her. Just as he was ready to sail out of Boston 
harbor, a politely written challenge to test the powers of their ships 
in battle, came from Captain Broke of the British ship Sha^inon, 
which lay outside the harbor, one of a fleet which was blockading 
the coast of New England. Lawrence accepted the challenge and 
went out to meet his foe. 

The news that the Chesapeake and Shannon were to meet in 
mortal combat, spread like wild-fire round the coast. On the high- 
lands about Boston harbor, in Salem and Marblehead, groups of 
people, some with glasses and some without, assembled to watch the 
result. I wish the prophecy of the sailors had failed, and I was able 
to write of victory for the unlucky Chesapeake. Instead, I must tell 
you that in fifteen minutes she was completely disabled, and when 
boarded by the British, — who shouted for joy at this victory, coming 
after so many defeats, the star spangled flag 
was hauled down and wrapped round the body 
of her dead commander. For brave James 
Lawrence was dead. Mortally wounded in the 
first of the battle, he was carried below, crying 
in death, " Doiit give np the ship.'''' He did not 
survive the loss of his vessel, and his corse, still 
enveloped in the flag he loved so well, was 
carried to Halifax by the British, and buried captain Lawrence. 

with all the honors it deserved. 




328 STORY or our country. 

CHAPTER XI, 

BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 

Ship-building on the Lake. — A Stage-coach loaded with Sailors. — The Look-out at Put-in Bay. 
— The Battle begins. — Commodore Perry's Ship disabled. — He rows to the Niagara. — Vic- 
tory on Lake Erie. — Battle of the Thames. 

All tlirouo;li the summer of 1813 there were busy times m the 
harbor of Erie, Pennsylvania. Several gallant vessels, some ready to 
be launched, some partly completed, others' merely great skeleton 
hulks on whose sides the hammer of the carpenter made cheery 
music, were gathered in the quiet harbor of Lake Erie, on whose 
shores the town of Erie, Pennsylvania, is built. 

Captain Oliver Perry, a young naval'officer, had been sent there 
to build a fleet to engage with the British squadron which held the 
lake. When all were fini.shed, there were nine sliips in all — three 
brigs, a sloop, and five schooners. The brig which was to be Perry's 
own flag-ship, he named the Lawrence^ in honor of the dead hero 
who had fallen on the Chesapeake. 

After the ships were done and lay sound and stanch in the harbor, 
there were no men to work her. For weeks Perry begged for men 
and promised the country victory if they would send him sailors. 
At length tardily and in small installments they came in. General 
Harrison furnished one hundred Kentucky riflemen from his army. 
Dressed in their fringed hunting shirts, and leggings of deer-skins, 
they made a picturesque party for the deck of a man-of-war. New 
England also sent sailors. From Rhode Island, Captain Perry's na- 
tive State, another hundred men were sent. These were real sailors, 
who had seen service on the Atlantic, some of them gray old sea- 
dogs with hands horny from handling tarred ropes in ships of war or 
commerce. When they were ready to be sent to Lake Erie it was 
found that they could not march on foot like soldiers. They rolled 
about on their legs like ships in a gale, and knew so little about 
military order, that it was useless to attempt to march them thither. 
So the government fitted up a dozen great stage-coaches in Boston, 
with four horses each, and in these they were taken to Lake Erie. 
These jolly tars decorated their coaches with flags and streamers, 
and with a band of musicians on top, rattled through the country to 
the tunes of Yankee Doodle and Hail Columbia, waking the huzzas 
of the people as they drove through the scattered villages from Bos- 



BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. 329 

ton to Western Pennsylvania, They were the merriest set of fel- 
lows who ever made a stage-coach journe3^ 

When Perry got his ships all manned, he had only one more wish. 
It was to meet his enemy ; and for a month it seemed as if every 
one of their ships had been sunk under Erie's waters. Day after 
day Perry watched in vain for a sail from his covert in Put-in Bay : 
and day after day no sail appeared. 

One pleasant morning, the 10th of September, the cry " Sail ho ! " 
resounded from the mast-head of his vessel. Word that the Eng- 
lish fleet were coming, spread from ship to ship. Every officer felt 
his pulses beat eagerly ; every man shared his officer's pride in the 
ship, and his desire to do his best in the coming battle. 

By ten o'clock that day six English ships hove to and lay in a 
compact line, waiting the approach of the Americans. 

Perry had nine ships, the British only six ; but the Americans 
carried only fifty-four guns, the British sixty-three. In close en- 
counter the Americans would have the advantage ; at a long range 
the English guns could do the deadliest work. This decided Perry 
to approach quickly, and save his fire till he was close to the enemy. 
But before giving the order to draw near, he brought from his cabin 
a simple banner of blue cloth inscribed with these words in white 
letters, " Doii't give up the ship.'" " Boys," he said, holding aloft 
the pennant, so that all might read it, " these are the dying words 
of the brave Lawrence. Shall I hoist this banner ? " 

" Aye, aye, sir ! " shouted the crew with a will, and such a cheer 
went up on board the Lawrence, returned by the men on all the 
other ships, that it woke the echoes on shore, and was sent resound- 
ing back to the ears of the waiting Englishmen. 

The command was given to advance, and on went the Lmvrence 
with the blue banner aloft. Barclay, the English commander, was 
on board the Detroit, the largest and best vessel of his squadron. 
He leveled his fire at the Lmvrence as she came grandly on. True 
to his resolution not to fire till he was close at hand. Perry kept 
his guns quiet till within short range. Then he opened fire, and 
all the ships of the two lines engaged. It was a sight terrible 
and grand. For almost three hours a deadly combat waged, filling 
the whole air with smoke and flame, with the roar of guns and 
the cries of wounded. On his deck, which ran blood like water, 
Perry saw man after man go down. His lieutenant, wounded in 
the face by a splinter from a gun, was streaming with blood, but 



380 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



stanclily refused to go below. Every man worked with superhuman 
energy. Perry's brother, a boy of twelve, stood beside him until he 

was struck by a splinter, 
and carried to the cabin. 
Of one hundred men Avho 
stood erect in the fullness 
of manly strengtli and vigor 
on that morning, only eight- 
een remained standing on 
the deck. The good ship 
Lawrence, too, was in as 
bad plight as her crew. 
With shattered masts, rag- 
ged sails, and ever}'^ gun 
silenced, she lay a battered 
hulk at the mercy of the 
enemy. 

In this emergency Perry 
saw the Niagara, the sec- 
ond ship in his fleet, appar- 
ently fresh and uninjured. 
He immediately ordei-ed a 
boat to be lowered, and wrapping himself in his banner, which had 
streamed abroad through all the conflict, he leaped into the boat 
and ordered four of his crew to row him to the JViar/ara. 

As the boat sped over the waves, the guns of the Detroit sent 
discharge after discharge at the tiny craft. Standing upright in 
the boat. Perry furnished a shining mark for their shot. The balls 
cut the waters on every side, but the boat was untouched, and on 
reaching the Niagara Perry climbed rapidly up her sides, and trod 
the deck of a ship fresh, untired, and ready for action. With ti-e- 
mendous energy the fight was renewed. The Niagara broke the 
line of the enemy, raked her two foremost ships with terrible destruc- 
tion, and in fifteen minutes from the time Perry stepped on board 
her, four English ships had struck their colors, and a white flag was 
flying from their bows. The two smaller ships of the squadron 
showed their heels in an attempt to escape, but two of the Ameri- 
can schooners gave chase and soon brought them back as prisoners. 
It was a sight to see when Perr}^ stood on the deck of his vessel, 
among the corpses of the men who died in her defense, and the 




BATTLP] OF LAKE ERIE. 331 

English officers one after the other tendered him their swords, hilt 
foremost, in token of their conquest. He refused to take their 
swords, and treated his prisoners with such generous kindness that 
Commander Barclay afterwards declared, '•'•Perry's humanity alone 
should have immortalized him." 

General Harrison was waiting on shore with eight thousand men, 
to hear the result of Perry's battle. As soon as the good news 
reached him, he marched his army on Detroit. The cruel Proctor 
still occupied the town with his army. His Indian ally, Tecumseh, 
with two thousand warriors, was with him. 

Proctor, too, had heard of the defeat of Barclay's squadron, and 
when Harrison's approach was made known, fled with all possible 
haste. First, however, he set fire to all the stores in Detroit that 
could be of any service to the Americans. Then he went with all 
speed up the banks of the Thames River in Canada. Harrison 
reached Detroit and found the city deserted, and the smoking embers 
of the burnt store-houses which the enemy had left. " He was joined 
here by a thousand mounted men under Colonel Richard M. John- 
son of Kentucky. Without waiting to rest, he pushed on in pursuit 
of Proctor and Tecumseh. 

He overtook the enemy on the evening of October 4th, and en- 
camped on the Thames, eighty miles from Detroit. Worn out with 
their march, the tired army slept like children, and next morning 
were ready for battle. Colonel Johnson with his mounted Ken- 
tuckians made the first onset. Their battle-cry was, " Remember 
the River Raisin," and with the memor}^ of their dead at French- 
town, murdered through Proctor's treachery, they spurred their 
horses on in a tremendous charge. 

' ' The Eno;lish strove with desperate strength, 
Paused, — rallied, — staggered, — fled." 

Proctor ran away as soon as the tide of battle turned against him. 
Tecumseh, whose name ought to live with those of other heroes and 
patriots, fought bravely till he fell under the balls which rained 
their iron hail all around him. His warriors, seeing their leader 
killed, uttered a yell of grief and dismay, and ran wildly from the 
field. Thus ended the battle of the Thames in complete victory for 
the Americans. 



332 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XII. 

FRESH VICTORIES AND DEFEATS. 

The Battle of Chippewa. — Scott at Lundy's Lane. —Admiral Cockbiini sails up the Potomac. 
— Alarm at Washington. — The Defense at Blagdensburg. — Invasion of Washington. — 
The Dinner at the White House. — Baltimore beseiged. — The Star Spangled Banner. 

The victory of Harrison over Proctor and Tecumseh carried the 
wave of war eastward, and the struggle was renewed now on the 
borders of Lake Ontario and the Niagara River. General Jacob 
Brown was commanding in this region, and he had for his riglit arm 
young Winfield Scott, who was worth a dozen ordinary men in 
courage and military ability. Brown and Scott were eager to invade 
Canada, and carry the war into the enemy's country. Just before 
the 4tli of July they crossed the Niagara, and took Fort Erie, just 
opposite Buffalo on the Niagara River. There they heard of a 
body of the British encamped upon the Chippewa Creek a few miles 
north, and went rapidly on, eager to light on the anniversary of their 
country's independence. The British leader wondered why they 
were so hotly pressed by the Americans, till some one reminded him 
what day it was. 

" Never mind, boys," said Scott to his troops, when they failed 
to force the English to battle on the 4th ; "we will make a new 
anniversary to-morrow." 

And so they did. On the 5th of July the battle of Chippewa 
was fought and won by the Americans. Scott covered himself with 
glory by the skill and bravery which he showed here. After tlii^ 
battle, the British retreated over Chippewa Creek. Brown prepared 
to follow them. He sent Scott with 1,200 men towards the Niagara. 
The British were in a narrow road leading down to the river, 
known as Lundy's Lane. With his brave twelve hundred, Scott 
came suddenly upon their force of 2,000, strongly posted in this 
lane, which was directly in his line of march. Without hesitating, 
Scott pushed on. It was sunset, and the spray from the great Falls 
of Niagara, close at hand, was formed into myriads of rainbows by 
the rays of the setting sun. As Scott advanced through the floating 
mists, his tall figure was surrounded with the bright halo which the 
spray had formed. The army behind joyfully hailed his rainbow- 
crowned head as an omen of victory. From sunset until midnight 
the silent sky was lit up by the lurid blaze of cannon ; the waning 



FRESH VICTORIES AND DEFEATS. 833 

moon and pale stars were obscured by the smoke vvliicli rose in dense 
columns from the field. Fighting by broad daylight is horrible 
enough, but it seems as if night added a deeper horror to the scenes 
of war. Almost at the close of the conflict, after two horses had 
been shot and killed under him, Scott was carried away wounded, 
crying as he went, " Charge again ! Charge once more ! " The 
Americans had taken the enemy's cannon and had driven them from 
the field. But a more timid commander was left to take Scott's 
place, and after all was over he abandoned the ground gained, and 
led his men back to encamp on Chippewa Creek. The British in- 
stantly returned, occupied the field, and claimed the victory. 

During all the year 1813 a fleet of British ships had been block- 
ading our coasts, and the name of Admiral Cockburn who com- 
manded it was a word of terror in every town and village on the 
Atlantic shore. Again and again his ships had come into port, 
landed a band of soldiery, who burned and destroyed wherever they 
could apply the torch. 

In the summer of 1814 this invading fleet planned their boldest 
enterprise. Admiral Cochrane joined them on the shores of Vir- 
ginia with a fresh fleet of ships. They were freighted with an army 
of 4,000 men, the flower of the Duke of Wellington's troops. Wel- 
lington was the great English general who had just beaten Napo^ 
leon Bonaparte at Waterloo, and his army was supposed to be un- 
conquerable. The whole country around Virginia was thrown into 
great trouble at the news of their approach. 

They entered Chesapeake Bay and sailed up the Potomac River. 
It was in August, and all the country was green and beautiful. 
The river was bordered with dense forests broken here and there 
by a clearing, where the plantation of some wealthy Virginian, or 
the smoke of a little cluster of houses, showed traces of human habi- 
tation. The tall trees excited the admiration of the British officers, 
who had never seen forests of such grandeur. 

About fifty miles from Washington city the English troops were 
landed, 4,500 men in all, with sailors to drag their artillery. And 
now the rumor reached Washington that the enemy were marching 
on to destroy the city. President Madison, by virtue of his office, 
was the commander-in-chief of the army, but he was not a military 
man by training or instinct. The protection of Washington was 
intrusted to General Winder, who began hurriedly to gather troops 
for its defense. 



334 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Meanwhile the British were steadily approaching, A flotilla of 
boats and barges kept up the Patiixent River abreast of the Eng- 
lish troops. The flotilla was commanded by Cockburn. The land 
troops were led by General Ross, an Irish officer from Wellington's 
army. 

As the English drew nearer, reports of their numbers kept reach- 
ing the ears of the Americans in Washington. They were magni- 
fied into 10,000 men, in splendid fighting order. General Winder 
had raised hastily and without proper preparation, 7,000 men, and a 
small force of cavalry. These should have been enough, and more 
than enough, to overcome all the British force. The defense was 
placed at Blagdensburg, a town six miles from the caj)ital, through 
w^iicli the English must pass to invade it. 

Three days after their landing, the English came upon Blagdens- 
burg, and the American outposts there. All the morning they had 
been marching through one of the thick forests, cool and impene- 
trable to the sun's rays. About noontide they came out into a road 
without shade, and the intense heat of the sun's rays, pouring with 
full force upon them, had been very severe. Many had fallen under 
it, unable to go on. When the English came in sight of Blagdens- 
burg, they found the American army in three lines, one behind the 
other, within the distance of a mile. The first line was formed on 
a low hill, which overlooked a bridge, across which ran the direct 
road to Washington. The English charged across the bridge, and 
were driven back by the Americans. A second charge and they 
were over, and had gained another step on their journey. 

There has been a great deal said about the battle of Blagdensburg, 
and the folly of the country in allowing the British to get so far 
without check. It certainly seems, when we look at the matter, as 
if 7,000 men, even if part of them were undisciplined, might have 
kept back a force so much smaller. But the Americans had heard 
very exaggerated reports of the number of their foes, and did not go 
into battle with the confidence which is a part of success. After 
their first line was broken, the English troops easily drove back the 
second and third line, and in less than four hours they had driven 
the last detachment of the Americans to retreat to the forests where 
the enemy could not pursue them. By eight o'clock that evening 
the invading army marched into our national capital. 

President Madison and his cabinet had been on the field of bat- 
tle during the day, but as they saw the certainty of their defeat, 




22 



FRESH VICTORIES AND DEFEATS. 837 

they rode hurriedly back to Washington to save what they could. 
Mrs. Madison had loaded a cart with her valuables, in readiness to 
depart. Just before leaving she remembered the great portrait of 
Washington which hung on one of the walls of the presidential man- 
sion. The frame could not easily be taken down and carried away, 
and the energetic lady cut the canvas from its frame, and rolling 
up the picture, took it with her into safet^^ The whole party fled 
across the Potomac, and sought refuge in a village there for that 
night. 

When the English officers entered the White House, they found 
there an excellent dinner which had been prepared for the president 
and his party. The table was spread with the best dishes, table 
linen and plate, the wine waiting in wine coolers, the plates in plate 
warmers before the dining-room fire, and the roast meats turning on 
the spit. The conquerors sat down and ate with very good appe- 
tites. I wish it had made them better natured, but their first move- 
ment after dinner was to set fire to all the public buildings, the 
Capitol, President's House, Arsenal, Public Library, all the buildings 
belonging to government. The blaze lit up the whole heavens and 
turned night into day for many miles around. 

During the night a terrible storm of rain and hail came up, and 
after this storm had somewhat abated, the English, who had begun 
to fear the Americans might come back in numbers too strong for 
them, marched silently and rapidly back to their fleet, embarked, 
and put back to Chesapeake Bay. Thus ended the invasion of 
Washington, one of the most exciting events of the war. The Eng- 
lish believed it a great victory, but as Washington was only a 
newly built, straggling, unfurnished city, only fourteen years before 
an uncleared spot in the wilderness, its destruction very slightly 
afi^ected the fortunes of the country. 

The English fleet next sailed up into Patapsco River to Baltimore, 
and attempted to take that city. But Baltimore was able to repulse 
their attack, and send them away in mourning. General Ross, their 
gallant Irish commander, was killed in the attempt to take the city. 

During the attack on Baltimore the English vessels in the bay 
bombarded Fort McHenry, which guarded the approach to the city 
by water. Just before the firing began, on the night of the 14tli of 
September, a volunteer soldier, named Francis Scott Key, had gone 
on board one of the vessels, under a flag of truce, to urge the release 
of some American prisoners taken at Washington. He was detained 



338 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



on the English ship during the bombardment. At midnight the 
firing ceased, and Key waited with intense anxiety for daylight, to 
see if the flag still floated over McHenry. When the morning 
dawned, it was still flying proudly from the top of the fort. On 




Fort McHenry. 

the deck of that ship where he had passed a night of sleepless anx- 
iety, Key composed the song of " The Star Spangled Banner," since 
one of our national songs. 

" Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly avc hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming — 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. 
Oh, say, does the star spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?" 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MACD* ROUGH'S VICTORY. 

" Old Ironsides." — Macdonough on Lake Champlain. — Fight on Lake and on Shore. — Vic- 
tory in the Fleet. — The British Defeat at Plattsburg. 

Our good ships did excellent service on the sea all this year of 
1814. The Constitution was always a " lucky ship," so the super- 
stitious sailors said, and got the title of "Old Ironsides," which she 
has borne from that day. One of our poets has written some lines 
about " Old Ironsides," which every American school-boy knows. 



MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY. 



339 



" Aye, tear her tattered ensijrn down, 
Long has it waved on high, 
And many an eye has danced to see 
That banner in the sky." 

The chief naval battle of this year was the battle of Lake Cham- 
plain. During the whole spring and summer the British were threat- 
ening a descent upon New York from Lake Champlain. To gain the 
wliole control of the lake would give them almost unlimited power 
over all that region, divide Vermont from New York, and perhaps 
end by dividing New York and New England. General Macomb 
commanded our army, encamped at Plattsburg on the shores of 
Champlain. He had only about 3,000 men, when news reached 
him that General Prevost, with an army of 12,000, was pre- 
paring to march down upon him. He immediately called upon 
Vermont to send men to his aid, and from the Green Mountain 
State, the home of Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, volunteers came 
in crowds to his stand- 
ard. ' Bidding hasty 
farewells to their fami- 
lies and homes, these 
gallant sons of Vermont 
hastened to the stand- 
ard of Macomb. On 
the lake, Commodore 
Macdonough, with a 
fleet of four vessels and 
ten small gunboats, 
was waiting to meet 
the English fleet. He 
lay at anchor close by 
those shores where just 
two hundred years be- 
fore Samuel Champlain 
Iwd frightened away 
the Indians with the 
first volley of his mus- 
kets. Thus for weeks 
they Waited, Macdon- 
ough on the water, Macomb on the land, for the approach of the 
enemy. 




340 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

It was the lltli of September when General Prevost approached 
Plattsburg with his formidable army, to engage the troops of Ma- 
comb, many of them raw volunteers. On the same morning — it 
was a lovely Sunday, day of peace and good-will among men — 
the fleet of Captain Downie, headed by his flag-ship, the Conjiance., 
was seen approaching Macdonough. Two deadly struggles were 
close at hand. 

What do you think Macdonough did first? His ships were in 
order, every gun ready for action, every man instructed in his duty. 
All that had been taken care of beforehand, so there was no need 
of hurry or loud command. He called all his men on deck, and 
gathering them about him, read a few spirited verses from the grand 
Psalms of David, and offered up a brief prayer to God before he 
plunged into battle. That done, he was all ready. 

The fight was almost another Lake Erie. Macdonough's sliip 
was the Saratoga^ and as she carried the signal-flag of combat, 
against her the hottest fire was directed. Twice the cry went up 
that Macdonough was killed. Twice for answer he sprang* to liis 
feet, begrimed with dust and blood, but still alive. At the last, 
when all her guns were silenced, the Saratoga manoeuvred to turn 
about and present her other broadside to the Conjiance, her chief 
adversary. The Conjiance tried the same manoeuvre. This meant 
victory to the vessel who accomplished it ; defeat to the one who 
failed. What a cheer arose from the lips of those on the battered 
Saratoga, who were left witli voice enough to cheer, when her hulk 
swung slowly round, and her uninjured side was brought to bear 
on the Conjiance. The latter vessel was at her mercy. Captain 
Downie, the English commander, lay dead upon her deck ; the other 
American ships were following up the victory gained by their leader, 
and after two hours and a half of most desperate conflict, the Brit- 
ish flag again was pulled down, and the star spangled banner waved 
in its place. 

On shore, the fight had also been going on as fiercely as on the 
lake. The Green Mountain Boys had done well. Yet the odds 
were against them. Their i-anks had once been broken, and their 
leader was rallying them again, when a horseman, wald with excite- 
ment, rode through the ranks, proclaiming Macdonough's victory. 
The news was like new wine to the blood. The army felt re- 
doubled strength, and was ready to charge an enemy of twice its size. 

General Prevost heard the news at the same moment. As de- 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR. 341 

pressed as the Ainericuns were elated, he made an immediate 
retreat, leaving his wounded to the mercy and care of the Ameri- 
cans. These men lay on the field with the rain falling on their up- 
turned faces, mutely asking that help from Heaven which their com- 
rades could not stop to give. 

Thus one day saw the victorious battles of Plattsburg and Lake 
Champlain, a day long to be remembered in our country's history. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR. 

Signs of Peace. — Andrew Jackson at New Orleans. — Organizes Regiments of Blacli Men. — 
Preparations for a Merry Cliristmas in Camp. — Barricades of Sugar Hogslieads. — Battle 
of New Orleans. — The Peace Angel. — A New President elected. 

Are you not tired of war, the booming of cannon, and the cries 
of the dying ? I am, and shall be glad when all this is over, and 
we have smiling peace once more. Already signs of it begin to ap- 
pear in the eastern skies, and England no less than America begins 
to long for rest and quiet. 

I will take you to only one more battle-field, and then we may 
for the present say farewell to all the pomp and circumstance of war. 

In the South and Southwest General Andrew Jackson of Ten- 
nessee, the same tall, awkward looking representative who first ap- 
l)eared on the part of his State in Congress, had been fighting the 
Indians. After Tecumseh visited the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choc- 
taws (all tribes of the Southwest in the Mississippi valley), they 
had leagued with the British to harass our armies in the South- 
west. Harrison had done brave work on this western border, but 
in April, 1814, retired from service, and left Jackson to fill his 
place. At the close of the year Jackson had been stationed in the 
town of Pensacola, still nnder Spanish ride, to prevent the French 
and Spaniards on our southern coasts from giving help or comfort to 
the enemy. 

While he was there, a formidable foe was all ready to swoop down 
upon him. 

The fleets of Admirals Cochrane and Cockburn had been rein- 
forced. A large number of ships, and men, enough to swell their 
forces to eleven or twelve thousand, had been sent from England 



342 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

after the capture of Washington by the British army and their re- 
pulse at Baltimore. Sir Edward Pakenham, who had been with 
the great Wellington in Spain, and beaten the French armies there, 
was to be the commander of this fresh army. And their design now 
was to sail silently and swiftly to the Gulf of Mexico, and get the 
mouths of the Mississippi River. They had all the Indians in the 
Mississippi valley on their side, and they knew there were many 
foreigners in Louisiana who cared very little for the United States, 
and would help ver}' little in her defense. Then the Spaniards in 
Florida were more than half their friends. With all these things 
to aid them, they might hope to hold the outlet of the great river, 
and so keep the United States from using the Mississippi, or extend- 
ing her territory beyond its banks. So certain were they of success 
that one of their officers said, " We hear that we have only to show 
ourselves before New Orleans, and the city will fall into our hands." 
But there was one lion in their way, and that lion was General An- 
drew Jackson. You remember, in the Revolutionary War, when he 
was taken prisoner, he had been knocked down for refusing to clean 
the boots of an English officer ? What he had seen and suffered in 
those old days in South Carolina had filled him with an intense and 
life-long hatred of the English. There were few generals in the 
American army better fitted to oppose the English plans against 
New Orleans. 

He was in Pensacola keeping a wary eye on the Spaniards, when 
an urgent entreaty was sent that he would come at once to New 
Orleans. The British w^ere coming down upon them. There was 
no time to lose. 

He hastened thither at once, found everybody frightened, and 
nothing ready for defense. If the English had arrived before Jack- 
son came there, they might have had New Orleans. 

Jackson went to work. He put a musket into the hands of every 
man who could carry one. He formed regiments of black men, who 
had not before been allowed to serve in the war, although half the 
population of the city were colored. If a man came to complain 
that he feared the English were coming, and would lay his planta- 
tion waste, " Here, take this musket, go into the ranks, and help 
defend your plantation," answered the indefatigable Jackson. He 
overlooked in person all the forts guarding the approach to the city, 
and put them in the best order he could on so short notice. Then 
he turned his attention to the shipping. In Lake Ponchartrain, 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF THE WAR. 343 

and Lake Borgne there were half a dozen gun-boats. A few boats 
and barges, and two shijjs, the Carolina and the Louisiana, hiy in 
the riyer. This was all the naval force in the Territory to oppose 
a fleet of over fifty ships, with barges to match, in which the sol- 
diers could be sent up rivers impassable to larger vessels. 

His first preparations were hardly made when news came that a 
great flotilla of barges had entered Lake Borgne and captured the 
American boats there. From the lake the flotilla entered a little 
stream which wound towards the city, and sailing up until it was 
within nine miles of New Orleans, landed 2,000 men on its banks. 

Jackson was still at work in the city, inspiring hope and patriot- 
ism there. General Coffee had joined him from Pensacola with 
nearly 1,400 men ; General Carroll, with a company of sharp-shoot- 
ing Tennesseeans, had also arrived. When news reached Jackson, 
through his trusty spies, of the landing of the soldiers, his army was 
already distributed and instructions given. 

The British, encamped on a flat strip of land lying between the 
levee which held back the river on one side, and an impassable cy- 
press swamp on the other, were confldent of success. They biv- 
ouacked about, making their preparation for a merry Christmas, 
unconscious of any special need for alarm. On the evening of the 
23d of December, the day of their landing, they were quietly eating 
their suppers, reclining at ease on the grass or inside the tents, when 
an armed vessel appeared on the creek or bayou. As she rode by in 
the stream so narrow that she almost grazed the shore, a voice, so 
distinct that officers and men heard the words, cried aloud, " Now 
boys, give them one for the honor of America," and on the moment 
a volley of grape tore through the camp carrying death and confu- 
sion into their midst. It was the ship Carolina, one of the only two 
available vessels in Jackson's hands. The guns from the ship were 
the signals of attack. The Americans were marching on their foe. 
Drums beat to arms, and the British had hardly time to form before 
they were almost surrounded. It was now dark, and they fought 
hand to hand without seeinQ- each other's faces. At last the British 
took shelter behind the levee on their left, hostilities were for the 
time suspended, and the night was quiet except for the cries of the 
wounded and dying. 

Christmas day came and passed. Not a merry Christmas for 
either army. The Americans were busy building a barricade to 
reach from the river to the cypress swamps, which should keep the 



344 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

enemy from New Orleans. For nearl}^ a week they worked like 
ants on an ant-hill, making their defenses high and strong — piling 
np bales of cotton, with trees, earth, and whatever else would serve 

to make it sure. The British 





':^/^ 



Br.Eattcri 



JtultsorisB. Zrs. -C CYPRESS^ 

' Jack soN^s ^ U n l^ 



had found a sugar warehouse, 
and had constructed some 
costly defenses of the hogs- 
heads filled with sugar, behind 
which they worked their can- 
non. On the 28th of Decem- 
ber the foe again attacked the 

Plan of Battle of New Orleans. American liuC witllOut reSult. 

Almost daily for a week there was skirmishing between the lines. 
But on the morning of the 8th of January the grand attack came. 

It was led by Sir Edward Pakenham in person, and the attack- 
ing party was composed of the very flower of the British army. 
They marched on, furnished with scaling ladders, with which they 
meant to scale the formidable redoubt which Jackson's army had 
erected between them and New Orleans. But the Tennessee and 
Kentucky sharp-shooters picked off a man every time they fired, 
and before their unfailing rifles the British ranks grew thinner and 
thinner. Pakenham, invincible in Spain, was killed while he was 
cheering on his storming party, and fell back dead in the arms of 
one of his officers. The redoubt could not be taken even by the 
troops of Wellington, and leaving over 2,000 men killed and 
wounded on the field, the British withdrew to their boats, re-em- 
barked, and went to rejoin the fleet. Jackson had lost only a hand- 
ful of his men. His whole loss in the siege had been only a little 
more than three hundred. Thus ended the battle of New Orleans, 
the last bloodshed in the War of 1812. 

The angel of peace was already close at hand. On the 11th of 
February a vessel brought the glad news into New York harbor. 
A day and a half later it was known in Boston. Couriers, sent 
with all the speed that horses could travel, carried the good tidings 
from State to State, from village to village, and peace was celebrated 
by bonfires and bell-ringing all over the land. 

The remaining events of Madison's administration I can tell you 
in a few words. We were no sooner at peace with England, than 
Algiers, one of the pirate fraternity of states, made war with Amer- 
ica. Decatur, the hero of so many adventures, commanded the 



MONROE AND AT^AMS. 345 

fleet sent to bring the Dey of Algiers to terms. It did not take 
him long to settle the matter. In a week after he appeared with his 
fleet in the Mediterranean, the frightened dey sent to beg for a 
treaty. Decatur made him give up all the Americans he had taken 
for slaves, pay for the ships he had captured, and promise to ask for 
no more " presents " from American consuls. The dey paid a good 
round sum, gave up his American prisoners, and some Danes, 
wliom Decatur took as part payment for his debt, and promised to 
behave in the future. 

Then the country made a great treaty with the Indians, and 
buried a hatchet in token of continual peace. Indiana, one of the 
new Territories, which had been growing fast in spite of war, was 
made a State, and Madison's eight years having expired, James Mon- 
roe, his successor, also a Republican and a follower of Jefferson, took 
his seat in the president's chair on the 4th of March, 1817. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MONROE AND ADAMS. 



More Pirates. — War with Indians. — Lafayette's Visit. — Five New States. — Monroe Doc- 
trine. — Anotiier President from Massachusetts. — Death of Two Patriots. — Massachusetts 
and Virginia. — A Democratic President. 

James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States, and 
the fourth who was born in Virginia. He had begun his career as 
a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, and was wounded at the 
battle of Trenton. From the time of Washington's administration 
he had served his country in several offices at home and abroad. 
When he was nominated there was very little opposition, and he 
made his inaugural address in Washington to the largest number of 
people who had ever gathered in the capital to see the newly made 
president take his seat. 

Mr. Monroe was president for eight years, as Washington, Madi- 
son, and Jefferson had been. His administration was a quiet one, 
and few important events happened. 

There were troublesome pirates — not the Barbary pirates this 
time — but some water-thieves who infested the ports of the West 
Indies and waylaid our ships there. Brave Oliver Perry, hero of • 
Lake Erie, went down to scatter them, but was taken with yellow 
fever and died there. So we were obliged to subdue the pirates 
without help from him. 



346 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



The Florida Indians, known as Seminoles, also broke out in in- 
surrection. We can but feel a great deal of sympathy with the 
Indian tribes, when we consider how much reason they had to dread 





^/-T.-^^'P^ /^^^^(r^^<^-^ ^^ 



the growth of the white man's power. But our sympathy is de- 
stroyed almost as soon as it arises by the accounts we read of their 
barbarous warfare and the cruel treatment of the white people who 
fell into their hands. Massacres of women and children by these 
relentless foes began to reach the ears of government, and General 
Andrew Jackson was sent to subdue them. 

Jackson was living quietly at his home, " The Hermitage," in 
Tennessee, when the order came for him to proceed against the 
Seminoles. He raised two regiments of sharp-shooters in his native 
State, and marching to Florida, made quick work of the matter. 
Jackson never deliberated long upon what he thought a military ne- 
cessity. If he caught a man, white or Indian, who was stirring up 
sedition against the government, he hung him. Those he did not 
hang, he shot. In that way he disposed of all offenders rapidly, and 
soon made it more quiet in the Indian country. Soon after this, in 
the year 1821, SjDain gave Florida up to the United States, in pay- 



MONROE AND ADAMS. 347 

ment of a claim we held against her. Thus the Territory of Florida, 
with its old Spanish settlements, and the town of St. Augustine, the 
most ancient on the continent, became our property. General Jack- 
son was made governor of the newly acquired dominions, and went 
to live there for a time away from his Hermitage in Tennessee. 

One of the pleasantest things that happened in jVIonroe's adminis- 
tration was the visit of Lafayette to America in the year 1824. 
This noble Frenchman, only a youth of nineteen when he came to 
serve in our armies, was now a veteran of sixty-seven. He had 
fought for liberty in France, as well as for liberty in America, and 
now visited us to see the result of the experiment of self-government 
in our nation. His journey through this country was that of a man 
whom the whole people delighted to honor. Every town and city 
turned out in gala dress, its maidens in white, its children crowned 
with flowers, scattering flowers before the nation's guest. 

Verdant arches were held aloft that he might ride beneath them ; 
fire-works blazed in his honor ; huzzas rent the air. All over the 
land, wherever he went, the hearts of the people met him in a hearty 
burst of welcome. Never was welcome more sincere or honors more 
worthily bestowed. If America had forgotten Lafayette she would 
have been an ungrateful country who proved herself unworthy the 
aid her noble champion had given. 

One of Lafayette's journeys was made to the tomb of Washing- 
ton, the commander-in-chief he had revered, the friend he had loved 
like a son. 

On his return to France the United States fitted up a ship to bear 
him home. It was named the Brandywine^ in remembrance of the 
battle where he had received a wound in fighting for the liberty of 
America. Thus we bade farewell to Lafayette, whose conduct to 
America, from first to last, was that of the most disinterested friend- 
ship — a friendship rarely found in the annals of history. 

While Monroe was president, five new States were admitted. 
They were Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri. 
These show how the country was growing. We had now a Union 
of twenty-four States. There was a great dispute about the coming 
in of Missouri, which I will tell you more about hereafter. It was 
finally settled, and she became a State in the year 1821. 

When Monroe had served eight years — the country all the time 
prosperous and peaceful — he gave the chair of state to his successor, 
John Quincy Adams, and retired to his home in Virginia. The 



348 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



great feature of his polic}^ is called the "Monroe Doctrine," of 
which 3^011 may have heard. The Monroe doctrine was the theorv 
that the United States should keep out of all the wars and disputes 
arising in Europe, and that the quarrels of the Old World should 
never be allowed to affect affairs in the New World. A very sensible 
doctrine this was too, and one that has served us well. 

Now we have a second president from Massachusetts. A son of 

old John Adams, whom 
we have seen also in the 
seat this new president 
comes forward to occupy. 
This son has received all 
the advantages of educa- 
tion and travel which his 
father's position had given 
him, and is a dignified 
gentleman, of rather stiff 
manners, but of excellent 
judgment and pure jjatri- 
otism. 

It was in 1825 that he 
took his seat in the capi- 
tol as chief of the nation, 
with Mr. John C. Calhoun 
as vice-president. Like 
Monroe, he had a quiet, 
undisturbed rule for four 
In these times of peace the country grew constantly in 
manufactures and commerce, while all the time the line of emigrant 
wagons kept bearing westward the pioneer, who with his axe and 
plow was making the wilderness blossom with wheat and corn, the 
true riches of the country. 

In 1826, while the nation was celebrating its great anniversary, 
the 4th of July, two of its historic men passed away from earth. 
These two men were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both of 
whom had contributed so much to give this birth-day to America. 
Jefferson died at his home in Monticello. Just as the morning of 
tlie 4tli was ushered in, he oj^ened his eyes (he had been lying a 
long time speechless), and murmured, " This is the Fourth of July." 
At the same hour John Adams was lying on his death-bed in 




3 2-* cAclay^ 



years. 



MONROE AND ADAMS. 351 

Quincy, Massachusetts. Jefferson died a few hours earher than 
Adams. Just as Adams breathed his last, he said with animation, 
"Thomas Jefferson still lives." Yet at that moment the spirit of 
his fellow-patriot awaited him on the other side of the River of 
Death. Amid the booming of cannon and the festivities of the 
nation, these great men died. They had lived to a good old age. 
Adams was over ninety, Jefferson eighty-three years old. 

The question arose early in John Quincy Adams's administration, 
" who shall be next president of the United States ? " Up to this 
time either a native of Massachusetts or Virginia had filled the 
chair of state. And not only was the presidential office shared 
between these two States, but they very nearly divided the opinions 
and sympathies of the whole country. If you have read carefully 
all about the settlement of this country, you have seen what different 
people, of different ideas, habits, and social customs, make up these 
two States of Massachusetts and Virginia. You have seen Massa- 
chusetts (and by Massachusetts we mean nearly all of New Eng- 
land) building towns and cities on the products of its manufactures 
and commerce ; fostering common schools and colleges ; promoting 
equality among all classes of citizens ; abolishing slave labor ; advo- 
cating a strong federal government. Virginia, on the other hand, was 
an agricultural State. The cultivation of large plantations caused a 
widely scattered population, very different from the crowded towns 
of Massachusetts. Doing the work by the hands of slaves had tended 
to form there a landed aristocracy ; education was not so widely dif- 
fused ; in politics the tendency was towards " state rights " rather 
than to a strong federation. Indeed, the two States, not very much 
alike in the beginning, had ever since the Revolution been growing 
more and more apart. There was not much love lost between them. 
The Virginians thought the Yankees, as they contemptuously called 
the New Englanders, altogether too saving and stingy. They de- 
clared they cared for nothing but dollars and cents. On the other 
hand, the New Englanders had an innate dislike of the Virginia traf- 
fic in slaves, and thought the habits of Virginia less rigid in morals 
than they ought to be. In a word, the North and South, represented 
by Massachusetts and Virginia, after sharing the highest offices so 
long between them, might have shared the whole country, if another 
force had not come in to prevent it. For recollect, as I have been 
telling you, all this time the great West has been filling up, and its 
stirring pioneer life has produced a new race of citizens. It was time 

23 



352 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

to select a president from among these men to represent the new 
growing life of the nation. 

Andrew Jackson was the coming man for the presidency, — the first 
president from among the ranks of the people. Democrat means, 
as I hope you know by this time, one who believes in the right of 
the people to rule. Now, Jefferson had been a true Democrat in 
theory ; so had Madison and Monroe, but they, as well as Wash- 
ington and the two Adamses, had been born of wealthy and culti- 
vated families. They belonged to a more privileged class. But 
Andrew Jackson was really of the people ; born among them ; work- 
ing among them ; struggling up to power from their midst. He was 
a democrat by birth, as well as theory. The people saw this, and 
this was one thing that helped to make him, what he was then, and 
has been ever since, the president most widely popular, and more be- 
loved by all sections of the country, than any man since Washington. 
Hitherto the party of Jefferson had been called Republican. But 
with the coming in of Jackson, who ostensibly followed in the foot- 
steps of Jefferson's party, it was called Democratic. Make way, 
then, for General Andrew Jackson, first Democratic president of the 
United States. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

RAILROADS AND BANKS. 

Character of Andrew Jackson. —Traveling by Steam. —Tram-ways. —Oliver Evans's Steam- 
engine. — George Stephenson. — Jackson's War with the Banks. — The First National 
Banks. — Jackson vetoes the Bank Charter. 

We have seen something of Andrew Jackson before. At Cam- 
den, where the British officer knocked him down for resisting his 
tyranny ; on the floor of Congress, a tall, awkward looking back- 
woodsman from Tennessee ; at New Orleans, where his hatred of 
the British, no doubt, helped him beat the flower of their army 
there ; down in the Florida and Mississippi region, putting the In- 
dians under subjection. Wherever we have seen him, we have seen 
a man who does what he means to do ; will brook no opposition. 
A man who is domineering, arrogant, merciless to his enemies, 
inclined to use all the power he can take into his hands ; almost a 



KAILROADS AND BANKS. 



353 



dangerous man to put in power if it had not been for one quality : 
he devotedly loved Tils country^ and made her interests his own. He 
made mistakes, of course, but he always meant to do his duty by 
his country. 




He was sixty-two years old, a childless and lonely old man, 
almost heart-broken at the recent loss of his wife, when he came to 
Washington, March 4th, 1829, to be inaugurated. Around him, as 
a sort of body-guard, were a group of old soldiers, survivors of the 
Revolutionary War. No man ever held that war and its heroes in 
more sacred reverence than Andrew Jackson. 

When the fiery warrior of New Orleans was made president, his 
opponents said, " Now we shall have our hands full of wars and 
broils with foreign nations. Jackson hates England so sincerely he 
will embrace the first opportunity to quarrel with her." Their 
words did not come true, however, for we were unusually peaceful 
all through the eight years of Jackson's government. The most 
noteworthy event of his administration was the beginning of land 
travel by steam in this country. We had had steamboats ever since 
Fulton's successful trip on the Hudson. Already the western lakes 



354 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



and rivers were filled with large steamboats, and the Mississippi 
swarmed with steamers, carrying goods and passengers up and down 
between Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, New Orleans, and all the 
other large cities connected by inland rivers. 

Ever since the discovery of the steam-engine, and particularly 
since its application to boats, far-sighted men had been prophesying 
the application of steam to land travel. But inventors were slow 
in putting this idea into practice. Everybody said we must have 
some easier way of transporting goods and passengers by land, but 
nobody had produced the locomotive, worked by steam. We had 
built the great Erie Canal through New York, by the aid of De 
Witt Clinton, who was as active in that as Robert Livingston had 




01 ver Evana s Road Engine 

been in steam navigation ; but that did not serve the whole purpose. 
It was the problem for twenty years after steamboats began to run, 
how to get the same increased degi'ee of speed on land. 

First, railroads began to come in use. Coal mines caused the first 
railroads to be made, and they were used long before we could make 
steam-engines run on them. It was so much trouble to draw great 
carts loaded with coal from the English mines, that somebody sug- 
gested plank roads, with wooden rails, over which wheeled carts 
would run more easily. These were called " tram-ways." Then it 
was suggested that a plate of iron should be nailed on the wooden 
rail to make it wear longer; finally an iron rail was substituted, and 
thus the railway was all ready for the locomotive and cars. These 
" tram-ways " had long been used in England. In America, they 
already had such a road in the granite quarries of Quincy, Massa- 



RAILROADS AND BANKS. 



355 



chusetts, to draw out the large blocks of stone. But so far all had 
been done by horse-power. 

Yet clever men were all the time experimenting to make a steam- 
engine which would go. They tried them with wheels, and tried 
them with four legs like a horse. Benjamin Franklin, who was, as 
Captain Cuttle would say, " so chock full of science," believed it 
could be done. If he had not been so busy working for his country 
he might have found time to invent some of these things. As it 
was, he only speculated about them, and encouraged others to be- 
lieve in the possibility of the steam locomotive. 




First Railway Passenger Engine. 

Oliver Evans of Pennsylvania was the most earnest in advo- 
cating the use of steam in propelling carriages. He invented a 
steam-engine, and tried in vain to get some one interested in his 
project, who could lend him money to carry on his inventions. But 
a member of the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia ridiculed 
him as the man with a " steam mania," and his project was thought 
a very crazy one. In England, Richard Trevetliick had been work- 
ing on an engine of the same plan as Evans's. It has been said that 
Trevethick saw some of the drawings that Evans had sent to Eng- 
land when he was trying to interest people there in his scheme. 



356 



STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



However that may be, Trevethick got his locomotive made, and 
made one or two successful attempts to run it, until, from want of 
money, and that perseverance which surmounts all obstacles, even 
want of money, he gave up the plan. 




First Railway Coacli. 

The man to whom belongs the honor of making land traveling 
by steam possible, was not an American. It was the English 
collier, George Stephenson, who showed all the grit and energy 
which deserves, and will finally gain, success. In 1825, the year 
John Quincy Adams was made president, the first Stephenson loco- 
motive was run over a railway in England. 

We had now several railroads built, and in process of building, 
in the United States, beside the one in Quincy. The longest one 
was the Baltimore and Ohio road, which already began to draw 
passengers by horse-power. And when the news of Stephenson's 
success came here, we were already talking about steam locomotives. 
By 1830, steam-engines were running on several roads, and in 1832 
they had already run as fast as thirty-eight miles an hour. Rail- 
roads for the new steam carriages and engines were building all 
over the country, and we were beginning then to be, what we have 
since become, the greatest nation on the globe for vast railroad 
enterprises. How delighted would Thomas Jefferson have been, if 
he could have seen the Pacific Railroad, binding together the great 
extent of country which he sent Lewis and Clarke to explore. It 
is such inventions as these, rather than any wars of conquest, that 
make our country great and united. 



RAILROADS AND BANKS. 357 

There were two great political events in Jackson's time which 
caused much excitement, of which I must tell you. One was Jack- 
son's war with the United States Bank, and the other, his treat- 
ment of the NuUifiers of South Carolina. I will explain to you 
briefly about both. 

Ever since the days of the Revolution, the United States had 
kept up a national bank. Robert Morris, the financier of Conti- 
nental Congress, planned the first one, which lasted until Washing- 
ton was made president. Then Washington's right-hand man, 
Alexander Hamilton, brought forward a charter for a national bank, 
which Congress approved. It went into operation, and was a very 
serviceable institution until 1811, when it wound up its afi^airs and 
passed quietly out of existence. While we were carrying on the 
second war with England, our finances got badly muddled again, 
and President Madison was sometimes almost at his wit's end to 
know what to do for money. Governments are just as likely to be 
troubled in their money matters as private individuals, and the man 
who is clear-headed enough to fill the office of the secretary of treas- 
ury, and fill it well, must be a very remarkable man indeed. 

President Madison called to his aid Alexander Dallas, and he 
planned a new bank for the relief of the government. This bank — 
the one in existence when Jackson came to the chair of state — for 
a time worked admirably, and relieved the government of its 
troubles. It had a charter from Congress, allowing it to continue 
as a national bank till the year 1836 ; and it was expected by all 
who were interested in it, that Congress and the president would 
grant it a new charter from that date, and it would go on increas- 
ing in power and prosperity. 

But Jackson was no sooner president than he began to show his 
dislike to the institution. He thought it was not democratic, be- 
cause it placed so much money-power in a few hands. He also 
liked good hard gold and silver money, as we all do, I fancy, and 
he believed that these paper bank-notes did not always represent 
hard cash. So he began a war on the national bank. First, the 
bank people applied for a new charter, to come in force when the 
old one expired. Congress voted them a charter, and Jackson 
vetoed ^ it. Then he forbid the dejDositing of any more money in 
the bank, and ordered that the deposits should be removed from the 
national bank vault to the different state banks. 

^ The veto (from a Latin word, meaning " to forbid ") is tiie power the president has io for- 
bid an act passed by Congress. 



358 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

This caused a great uproar. The strongest men in Congress, 
representing the wealth of the country, opposed the president. His 
cabinet trembled in their shoes. When he told the secretary of the 
treasury to remove the deposits, he dared not obey him. On this, 
Jackson made the secretary resign, and put a new man in his place, 
who took the responsibility of moving the money. The whole 
country was disturbed and fearful of the consequences. But the 
admiration the Americans have for pluck aided the determined 
old general, and the bank was crushed. The Democrats were all 
delighted with this result, and the Federalists correspondingly un- 
happy. It made some financial trouble among the wealthy bond- 
holders, and a good many failures for a time. 

Jackson's manner of dealing with the Nullifiers was his great 
triumph, and won him the hearts of the Federalists. You must 
know first who the Nullifiers were, and I will begin a new chapter 
to explain it. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NULLIFIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Manufactures in United States. — They ask for a " Protective Tariff." — The South threaten 
Rebellion. — Three Great Men. — The Man of the South. — The Man of the West. — The 
Man of the North. — Wrath of .lackson. — Speech of Daniel Webster. — The Nullifiers sub- 
dued. — Indian Troubles again. — The Indians moved West. — Jackson returns to his 
Hermitage. 

After the country began to establish manufactures of various 
kinds, in order that we might not be dependent on Europe for all 
our cloth, hats, shoes, and . other manufactured articles, the makers 
of these goods began to call on Congress to " protect " them by 
passing a law to tax all articles brought here from Europe, of the 
same kind as those they were making for our markets. " We are 
poor and weak now," said the manufacturers to Congress. " These 
great factories in Europe can afford to sell lower than we can, and they 
will bring their goods here, and sell them so cheap to our people, 
that they will buy them, and we shall not be able to make any more. 
hats or cotton cloth or iron. But if you make the people who 
import from Europe pay you such a tax that they will be forced 
to sell their goods as high as our home-made articles, we shall soon 
be able to make as good hats or iron or cloth as they. Such a tax 



NULLIFIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 359 

will make the nation richer, because the money will go into the 
public treasury ; it will make us richer, for it will help us to become 
large manufacturers ; it will make our work-people richer, because 
we can pay them much larger wages than the work-people in Europe 
receive." 

This was in substance what the manufacturers said to Congress 
and the country. Nearly everybody approved ; and in 1828 a law 
called a " protective tariff " was passed, heavily taxing foreign goods 
to protect national manufactures. 

Well, this law had not been long in operation before the South- 
ern States, who were agricultural, and not commercial and manufact- 
uring like New England, New York, or Pennsylvania, discovered 
that protection was not as good for them, as it was for the others. 
They said to Congress, " It is very true that this tariff makes t£e 
manufacturers rich, able to build great factories, and cities full of the 
humming of cotton spindles. But what good does it do us, in Vir- 
ginia or the Carolinas. We do not sell our cotton at any better 
price, on account of it ; and when we want to buy cloth, or shoes, 
we have to pay more for the American article than we should have to 
pay for the European article, if it were not for this odious tax. Be- 
sides, the foreign article, which we can buy cheap, is better than the 
American article for which Ave pay dear. If Massachusetts who 
makes cloth, and Pennsylvania who produces iron, want a *• protective 
tariff,' let them have it. But give us free trade." 

Congress replied that a law made for one part of the country 
must be good all over the country. They could not make laws for 
one State and different ones for another. Finally, the feeling waxed 
very bitter in the South, especially in South Carolina, and the lat- 
ter State .began to take action against the law. She declared that 
she would not pay a tax ; that the general government had no right 
to enforce a law on a State which that State did not choose to ac- 
cept and that she should defend her state rights and take herself out 
of the Federal Union of States, if the country tried to enforce the 
tariff laws there. They held public meetings, in which they declared 
the tariff null and void in South Carolina ; and hence they received 
the name of JVulli.fiers, and their attempts to make the tariff of no 
effect were called "" Nullification Acts." At this time there were 
three very remarkable men in the United States • Senate, who were 
so much engaged in this dispute that I want to describe them to 
you. Probably we have never had at one time three so remarkable 



860 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



men in Congress as these three, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, 
and Henry Clay. 

John C. Calhoun was the man of the South, the leader of the 

Nullifiers. He was a 
South Carolinian by- 
birth, and believed 
with all his heart in 
his State. He was a 
tall, slender, erect 
man, with wonder- 
fully bright, keen 
eyes, that lighted up 
his thin, sallow face 
like coals of fire. 
When he spoke in 
Congress, his speeches 
were like the blows 
of a steel hammer, — 
decisive, clear, logical, 
with little of the em- 
broider}^ of fancy or 
^^ ^ rhetoric. He believed 

'^^^^^^4.^--X>-C<^^%^ \\\\X\ sincerity, that 
the rights of the 
state were superior to those of the government ; and Avith the aid of 
his friend, Robert Hayne, who was also a senator of South Caro- 
lina, he was ready to oppose the tariff laws, by force if necessary ; 
was willing to take his State out of the Union, and make her a 
little nation by herself. He was adored by his party, and considered 
the foremost leader and champion of the South. 

The man of the West was Henry Clay, the darling of the whole 
region west of the Alleghanies. He was born in Kentucky, the son 
of a poor preacher, and was a self-made man. His manners were 
so gracious and charming, that he won the friendship of nearly all 
who met him, and probably had more personal friends than any 
man in public office. As a speech-maker he was unsurpassed. He 
had a beautiful, clear, ringing voice, which went straight through 
the ear to the heart. This, with his fine presence, his winning 
face, his affable manners, made him a host in himself when he 
supported or opposed any measure. He was opposed with all his 




NULLIFIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



361 



might to the ideus of Calhoun and his followers, and although he 
had never been of the Federalist party, he was as strong a lover of 
the Union as any Massachusetts Federalist. 

The third in this trio of 
great men was Daniel Web- 
ster, the man of the North. 
A New Hampshire man by 
birth, he had removed to 
Massachusetts, and was a 
senator from that State. 
He had been reared a Fed- 
eralist, and held the doc- 
trines of Hamilton and his 
peers. Since the War of 
1812, however, he had sided 
with the administration on 
many points, although in 
union with both Clay and 
Calhoun, he had opposed 
the president in his bank 
policy. 

Of these three great men, 
Daniel Webster was the 
strongest and most power- 
ful orator. He had a tall, massive figure, with the head and shoul- 
ders of a Titan. His great forehead projected over a pair of large 
dark eyes that could glow like lurid fires. He had a voice to match 
his face, deep and sonorous, that was to the ringing utterances of 
Henry Clay as the clang of a deep-toned cathedral bell to the peal 
of musical chime bells. His speeches were like himself, massive, 
and grand, often soaring into regions of sublimest eloquence. No 
man listened to Webster without feeling thrilled with his oratory, 
and even those who were opposed to him often felt their prejudices 
melt away before his eloquence. Like Clay, he was a self-made 
man, the son of a poor farmer, working hard as a boy to get an 
education, and struggling upward through poverty to his present 
position. 

These three men were in the full vigor of life in Jackson's admin- 
istration. In 1832, when the nullifying agitation was at its height, 
Webster and Calhoun, both born in one year, were forty -seven years 
old. Clay was fifty-two. 




362 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



When Jackson lieard how the Nullifiers were holding meetings in 
South Carolina, threatening to oppose the government by force of 
arms, and that Calhoun and Hayne were encouraging them with 

speeches to this effect, 
his wrath waxed as hot 
against them as it had 
against the British at New 
Orleans. He was down 
in his Hermitage in Ten- 
nessee when the news of 
the agitation in Charles- 
ton reached him. The 
country had just elected 
him president for a second 
term by an immense ma- 
jority. He flew to Wash- 
ington, and there issued a 
vigorous proclamation to 
the people of South Caro- 
lina, calling them back to 
their allegiance as sub- 
^r—^^ jects of the United States. 

^^(^/^ ^^^y^^T^^^ ^^ ordered ships to be 

Charleston ; he sent orders to the forts to be on the look-out for the 
first sign of insurrection ; he marched troops there, ready to sup- 
press the first symptom of revolt. In short, if that insurrectionary 
little State had dared to take one step in opposition to the govern- 
ment, Jackson would have had her under subjection before she had 
time to strike a blow. 

The Nullifiers saw that resistance was foolhardy. The public 
meetings were stopped ; the volunteers who had been drilling in 
Charleston went home ; patriotic South Carolinians took off the blue 
cockade with a palmetto button in the centre, which they had been 
wearing as the sign of their loyalty to the State, and defiance of the 
government. Mr. Calhoun came quietly up to take his seat in Con- 
gress, and see what peaceful measures would do in the tariff busi- 
ness. Very soon Mr. Clay introduced a bill in Congress, softening 
the tariff measures so disagreeable to the South, and the disunion 
cloud passed over. 




NULLIFIERS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



363 




The Palmetto. 



But many of the people, who knew Jackson had never been a 
friend of the Federalist party, and were not certain how he would 
behave if the Union were threatened, were from this hour Jack- 
son's most loyal adherents. New Eng- 
land resounded with his praises. What 
he had done to the national bank was 
forgotten even by the friends of the 
bank. The whole people would have 
borne him aloft on their shoulders from 
Maine to Florida, so proud and fond they 
were of the president who maintained 
the Constitution and the JJyiion. 

As for Jackson, he was thoroughly in 
earnest. He did not care whether it 
made him popular or not. He would 
have done the same, in either case. He 
used to say, " Haman's gallows was not 
high enough to hang the man upon, who 
would raise his finger to pull down the 
Union." I think he was a little sorry 
on his death-bed that he had not hung John C. Calhoun and some 
of his fellow conspirators, as a " warning to future traitors." 

Some of Webster's speeches at this time are the grandest speci- 
mens of American eloquence. His speech in answer to Robert 
Hayne, when he talked of disunion on the floor of Congress, is one 
of his most famous orations. Then Webster announced the doctrine, 
that the United States ivas not a league of States^ hut a nation^ — 
one and indivisible — as much as Crreat Britain or France. He 
repudiated the doctrine of "every man for his State," and announced 
that every citizen of the United States had a country^ whose inter- 
ests were above that little corner of the Union where he happened 
to be born. So ended the agitation in South Carolina, which Jack- 
son's energy nipped at once in the bud. 

There were Indian wars in Jackson's time. Those were a neces- 
sary consequence of all our dealings with the Indians. The tribes 
of the South — the Seminoles in Florida, and the Creeks, Choctaws, 
Cherokees, and Chickasaws, who lived in Georgia, Alabama, and 
the region of the Mississippi — must be moved beyond the great 
river. The white man wanted their lands, and the white and the 
red man could not occupy the same soil in peace. A tract called 



364 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

tlie Indian Territory bad been set apart for them, and tbitber it was 
decided tbe Indians must go. Naturally tbey did not wisb to go. 
Tbey were somewbat civilized, — all tbese tribes wbose names I 
have given. Tbey had their farms and their villages ; many of 
them owned negro slaves ; they had built saw and grist-mills and 
stores, and possessed many of the appliances of civilized life. Some 
of their leaders were half-breeds, the sons of white men, and were 
more intelligent than tbe full-blooded Indians. They were ready 
to fight bitterly before they would remove beyond the Mississippi. 

But Jackson was as determined in this as in all other matters, — 
and he had decided they must remove. The Seminoles fought 
fiercely under Osceola, a half-breed chief, who had suffered wrongs 
enough at the bands of the white man to stir a fever in less savage 

blood than his. He was finally captured, 
and taken in irons to Fort Moultrie, where 
he died a prisoner. The Creeks also 
fought, as all brave men have done before 
or since, for the right to their homes and 
firesides. General Winfield Scott was 
finally sent there, and with very wise and 
soothing management succeeded in re- 
moving all the tribes to the new Indian 
Osceola. countr3^ The last of them went about 

1838. There these tribes remain to this day, — the most intelligent 
and civilized communities of Indians in the country. They liave 
schools, printing-presses, and a degree of intelligence among them, 
which argues well for their capacity to make good citizens. If the 
white men had known how to make peace with them as well as they 
had known how to make war upon them, we might liave been spared 
much bloodshed and a great deal of money. 

Jackson's administration ended in March, 1837. The vice-presi- 
dent of his second term was Martin Van Buren of New York, a 
descendant of the Avorthy Dutch settlers. " Old Hickory," as the 
people fondly called Jackson, was growing infirm and tired of office. 
He wanted his friend and colleague, Van Bure*!!, to be president, and 
he helped toward his election. Before he retired to the Hermi- 
tage, he had the satisfaction of assisting in the ceremonies which 
made Martin Van Buren the eighth President of the United States. 




VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



367 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 

"Old Hickory" and "Old Ironsides." — Hard Times. — Log Cabin Campaign. — Death of 
General Harrison. — John Tyler's Presidency. — A New Invention. — Samuel Morse, the 
Artist and Inventor. — Invention of the Telegraph. — A New Political Question. 

When Van Buren rode through the streets of Washington to the 
capitol, to take the in- 
augural vows, General 
Jackson rode by his side. 
The carriage in which 
they sat together was 
made of wood which had 
once been part of " Old 
I ronsides,' ' — the gallant 
sliip Constitution^ which 
had figured so often in 
our naval history. " Old 
Hickory " and " Old Iron- 
sides " shared with the 
new president the cheers 
of the crowd. 

Mr. Van Buren was 
hardly made president 
before the country was in 
great distress. All these 
bank troubles and moving 
about of the money of the country, had made many troubles among 
business men. Then there had been too much land speculation, and 
other kinds of speculation, for several years. All this helped now to 
make a panic, and the whole country was in the condition of a 
bankrupt merchant, whose creditors will not wait a day for their 
money. Rich men failed, poor men were thrown out of employ- 
ment. Provisions, always so cheap before, became very dear. Flour 
was fifteen dollars a barrel, and the poor, who had no work, were 
many of them without bread. Those were hard days. People 
blamed the government, which really had nothing to do with the 
state of affairs, and the new president was made unpopular by the 
discomfort which prevailed. 

24 




y^^-jyy^^e^/yz-^'U^eyT^ 



368 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



When his four years had nearly exph-ed, the Democrats nominated 
Van Buren for president again. Meantime the other party — now 
no longer called Federalists^ but renamed " Whigs," in remembrance 
of the revolutionary patriots — had been growing stronger. They 
nominated for president, William Henry Harrison, our old Indian 
fighter in Indiana, the hero of Tippecanoe. For vice-president they 
had John Tyler of Virginia. 

The Whigs made tlie land ring with a new war-cry of " Tippeca- 
noe ^d Tyler too." General Harrison had been living quietly in 

Ohio ever since he had re- 
signed his army command 
on the western border to 
Andrew Jackson in 1814. 
For several years he had 
occupied a rude frame-house 
on the western frontier, and 
lived like a plain farmer of 
very moderate means. 

Some of his Democratic 
V opponents said of him sneer- 
^ ingly, " Give Harrison a log 
cabin and a barrel of hard 
cider, and he will never 
leave Ohio to be President 
of the United States." On 
this his followers took up 
the word, and the "log 
cabin and hard cider cam- 
paign " was one of the most 
exciting political fights ever fought. Newspapers bore pictures of 
log cabins at their head, and barrels of hard cider were rolled from 
one town to another, attended by crowds of boys and men who 
turned out to see the fun. It ended in Harrison's election to the 
presidency, with Mr. John Tyler as vice-president. 

Ever since the election of Thomas Jefferson, forty years before, 
the Democratic party had held the political power and offices. Now 
the party which claimed to represent Washington and the elder 
Adams, once more took the reins. 

It was a brief triumph, however. On the 4th of March, 1841, 
William Henry Harrison took the solemn oath of his office. On 




/^^ M' /^Q^Zyi^^^fvT,^ 



VAN BUREN, HARRISON, AND TYLER. 



369 



the 4tli of April, one month later, lie lay a corpse in the national 
capitol. Worn out. by the excitement and labors of the election, he 
died before the country knew how well he would have filled his high 
office. 

In the event of the death of the president, the vice-president takes 
his place. John Tyler now came forward to take the chair from 
which his colleague had 
been so suddenly re- 
moved by death. He 
had been elected by the 
Whigs, and thfey natu- 
rally expected him to be 
their ally. But for some 
cause or other he disap- 
pointed their hopes, and 
very soon was acting in 
open alliance with the 
Democratic party which 
had held the power so 
many years before Har- 
rison's election. 

The most important 
event which occurred in 
Tyler's time was the in- 
troduction of telegraphy, 
which now followed the 
two great inventions of 
steamboats and railways. 

Like all the great inventions, the telegraph had been many years 
growing to perfection. Benjamin Franklin, flying his kite to the 
clouds to draw the lightning down, had done something toward 
the series of discoveries which helped make the telegraph. From 
his day, the wise men of France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Eng- 
land, and America, had been making experiments with electricity, 
galvanic batteries, and many other machines, which you and I do 
not very well understand, — all ©f which helped on to the telegraph. 
X Franklin himself had sent lightning across the Schuylkill River on 
a wire, and some Spanish experimenters had sent a message on a 
wire twenty-six miles long, as early as 1798. After the idea had 
been started that messages might really be sent on wires from one 




370 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

place to another, it began to grow in many minds at once, and al- 
most at the same time a German, an Englishman, and an American, 
began to invent a system of telegraphing by electricity. 

The American, to whom we owe our telegraph, was Samuel Morse 
of Massachusetts. His father was the Rev. Jedediah Morse, a 
clergyman, who liad made the first geography ever published in 
America. Your great grandfathers and grandmothers, no doubt, 
studied Morse's Geography when they went to school. Samuel 
Morse made up his mind to be an artist, and went over to England 
early in life to study painting with two great American painters, 
Washington AUstou and Benjamin West. You remember, Robert 
Fulton was an artist, too, and that he also went to England and 
studied with West, There is an idea quite prevalent that painters 
and other artists are not very practical, but for all that the two men 
who introduced steamboats and telegraphing into America, and 
made them go, were artists by profession. 

While studying and practicing his profession, jNIr. Morse went 
several times across the Atlantic Ocean. On one of these jour- 
neys, in the year 1832, he was talking with a fellow-passenger about 
discoveries in electricity, and in the course of the talk the idea of 
the telegraph, just as he afterwards carried it out, came into his 
head. He went to his cabin and made drawings to express his 
idea, and from that time forward devoted himself to perfecting his 
design. 

In the mean time William Cooke and William AVheatstone in 
England, ar.d Professor Steinheil in Germany, were also busily 
engaged in a ^milar enterprise. Wheatstone's telegraph was done 
first, and was used in England in 1837. Morse could not get the 
help which he asked from Congress till 1843. Then they gave him 
$30,000 to aid him in his work, and in 1844 a wire was laid from 
Washington to Baltimore and the first message ever sent in the 
United States passed between those two cities. Professor Steinheil 
was not so fortunate as his rivals. He, too, produced a telegraphing 
apparatus so nearly similar to Morse's that only a very slight differ- 
ence marked Morse's superiority. When Morse went to^ Europe 
to get his invention used there, tlie three systems of Wheatstone, 
Steinheil, and Morse were exhibited. Steinheil closely examined 
Morse's in the respect in which it differed from his own, and finally, 
with touching generosity, declared that the American invention 
was the best, and recommended it to the committee who were 



BRIEF HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



371 



examining it. A man wlio could so generously support the inter- 
ests of science, when to do so cost him the work of a life-time, and 
made his own invention useless, 
must be a noble character, and I 
like to record here the name of 
Professor Steinheil of Munich. 
Wheatstone strongly contended for 
the superiority of his method, and 
it has kept the supremacy in Eng- 
land. Morse's telegraph was ac- 
cepted by nearly all the European 
nations, and he was loaded with 
honors in Europe and America. 
Such is briefly the history of the 
electric telegraph, one of the great 
inventions of the world. It makes 
the year 1844 one of the most nota- 
ble in our country's history. 

A dispute which greatly troubled political parties in John Tyler's 
time, was about the annexation of Texas ; whether we should let 
the independent State of Texas become one of the United States. 
We have not before heard of this new country of Texas, and I nmst 
begin a new chapter to tell you about it. 




Samuel F. B. Morse- 



CHAPTER XIX. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Spaiiisli Conquest of Mexico — Inhabitants of Mexico. — Americans in Texas. — Sam Hous- 
ton. — Texas rebels against Mexico, and asks to join the United States. 

Do you remember Hernando Cortez ? He was the Spanish war- 
rior who, with a handful of soldiers, entered the territory of Mexico 
in North America, penetrated to its great inland capital, took the 
emperor Montezuma prisoner in his very palace, and subjected the 
country to the power of Spain. For years the gold and silver of 
Mexico went to enrich the coffers of Spain, and its mines seemed to 
offer boundless riches which could never be exhausted. All the 
dreams of Columbus, of the rich lands which he hoped to find in 
the East, were fulfilled in the western country of Mexico. 



372 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Ever since the conquest of Cortez, Mexico luid belonged to Spain. 
This not only included the present domain of Mexico, but Texas, 
California, and New Mexico, all three now States and Territories of 
the United States. I am going to tell you how these three large 
portions of Mexico came to be joined to our territory. 

Poor Spain had not been fortunate in her American possessions. 
Fu'st she was obliged to cede Louisiana to France, and we bought 
that Territory of the latter country. Then she was obliged to 
yield Florida to the United States, in order to settle a dispute about 
boundaries. Thus her possessions began to dwindle away. The 
inhabitants of Mexico had been a mixed population from the time 
of Cortez. First, there were the Spanish settlers, who held the power 
and the government offices, and were haughty, overbearing, and often 
cruel to their inferiors ; then there were the native ISIexicans, or In- 
dians, who were a race easily subdued, and who had suffered great 
oppression under Spanish rule : lastly there were a mixed race, which 
had sprung from the intermarriage of the Spanish and Indian races. 
These made up the inhabitants of Mexico. After tlie United States 
became an independent nation, there was a strong party in Mexico, 
disliking the Spanish rule, who would have been very glad to follow 
the example of the United States in making herself an independent 
nation. Affairs were tolerably quiet there, however, till 1810, when 
the Mexicans revolted and tried to throw off the power of Spain. 
There was a good deal of hot fighting for several years. Some- 
times the Spanish would think the rebellion was subdued, aiid every- 
thing settled, when all at once the Mexicans would be up in arms 
again, and the Spanish rulers deposed and sent to prison. At length, 
in 1824, Mexico finally declared herself a republic, free of Spain ; 
drew up a constitution, made a federal union of nineteen states and 
four territories, and elected her president and vice-president for four 
years, just like the United States. Thus we had a republican 
neighbor next door, and the power of Spain was broken in America. 
There were a great many American settlers living in a part of Mex- 
ico called Texas, which joined the United States, and many of them 
helped the Mexicans in their rebellion against Spain. When Mex- 
ico became a republic, many Americans bought land-grants, and 
went to Texas to settle. It was such a great broad country to raise 
cattle upon, that hundreds of colonists went there with herds of cows 
and horses ; soon innumerable cattle with a letter branded in their 
hides to show the name of their owner, roamed over the boundless, 
unfenced prairies. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



373 



A great many adventurers also came to Texas, men who had 
broken the laws of the United States and were afraid of its justice, 
so that the State contained many outlawed men, some of whom made 
trouble among the peaceable, order loving colonists. The prin- 
cipal American settler, and one who had brought a large colony to 
Texas, was a man from New England, named Stephen Austin. If 
you study the map of Texas you will see that he has a county and 
town named for him there. 

The Americans were much more enterprising and thrifty than 
the Mexicans. Where they settled, the country soon began to look 
trim and neat, with comfortable houses and well kept farm-yards. 
The Mexicans were content to live from generation to generation 
in "adobe" houses, houses built. of rude bricks, made of mud 




Mexican Farm-house. 

dried in the sun. They had little energy, and none of the Yankee 
shrewdness which was apt to get the better of them in all their bar- 
gains. It was quite natural that they should begin to feel jealous, 
and a little afraid of these pushing, enterprising Yankees. So 
when in 1833 the Americans held a convention, and sent Stephen 
Austin to the city of Mexico to ask that Texas should be admitted 
as a State into the Mexican Union, they kept him for months in a 
state of uncertainty about what answer they meant to make him. 



374 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Sam Houston. 



Austin got tired of this, and wrote to the Texas people to proclaim 
themselves a State without further delay. This letter the Mexicans 
got hold of, and at once put Austin in prison. 

When the American Texans heard how their petition had been 
received, they were up in arms at once. Every American felt him- 
self a match for eight or ten Mexi- 
cans. They got Sam Houston for 
their leader, a man who was brave 
enough to lead a forlorn hope. He 
had lived among the Indians as 
their adopted son in his boyhood, 
had fought under Andrew Jackson 
at New Orleans, and after the War 
of 1812 was over, had gone quietly 
into civilized life and settled down 
as a lawyer. All at once, in mid- 
dle life, the old adventurous spirit 
broke out in him again, and he 
went back to the Indians he had known in boyhood, became one of 
their tribe, and finally had roamed down to Texas to become one of 
the cattle graziers of that vast territory. Here he was, all ready to 
lead the rebellion in Texas. 

There was some sharp fighting with the Mexican authorities for 
several years. The contest began in 1836, and very soon after, 
Texas declared herself an independent State, made a government of 
her own, and chose Sam Houston governor. Very soon she asked 
the United States to take her in. But Martin Van Buren, who was 
then president, objected strongly. He did not want the United 
States to get into a quarrel with Mexico on account of Texas. So 
the matter stood all through Van Buren's time and John Tyler's 
administration. There were constant disputes in Congress about 
letting Texas come into the Union. The Northern States said 
" No, we do not want any more States with slavery. Texas is a 
slave-holding country, and the slave power is getting too strong for 
us. Besides, we do not want war. It hurts our trade and makes 
us poor." The Southern States argued in favor of admitting Texas 
for the very reasons that the North urged to keep her out. Tluis 
the dispute waxed hotter till the year 1845. Then, just before 
Tyler's last Congress dissolved, they voted to let Texas come into 
the Union as one of the United States, and amid the praises of the 



BEGINNING OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 375 

Democrats, who were delighted with this measure, and the curses of 
the Whigs, who were furiously angry about it, the administratioii 
of John Tyler ended. 



CHAPTER XX. 

BEGINNING OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 

"Old Zach." —Troops on the Rio Graiido. — Pfffo ^^^y. —The Prairie on Fire. — A Battle- 
field by Night. — Victor}' over the JNIexicaiis. — Crossing the Rio Grande. — Scenery about 
Monterey. — Capture of the Bishop's Palace. — Siege of the Town. — ^lonterey taken. 

James K. Polk, eleventh president of the United States, was 
born in North Carolina, but had lived many years in Tennessee. 
The votes of the Democratic party elected him to the seat left va- 
cant by John Tyler. He inherited from his predecessor the Mexi- 
can War, which was at once on his hands. This history of his 
administration is the history of this new war. Not a war for free- 
dom this time, but a war for conquest, — a war to extend the already 
vast area over which the United States Avas spreading. 

Mexico had declared that she should go to war if the United 
States attempted to annex Texas, and it was quite a foregone con- 
clusion that the act of Congress annexing this rebellious part of her 
dominions, would pull down war upon our heads. We liad at this 
time a bluff old soldier in our armies named Zachary Taylor, whom 
the men under his command called " Old Zach." Soldiers are very 
apt to give nicknames to their favorite leaders, and " Old Zach " had 
been a favorite commander ever since he went to fin-ht the Indian 
tribes whom Tecumseh had stirred up bn our western border in the 
last war with Great Britain. He was living down in Louisiana, 
when orders came for him to march to Texas and hold it agaiust any 
Mexican troops who miglit try to take the State. The Rio Grande, 
which means " great river," was to be the line dividing the new 
State from Mexico, and that was the line on which the government 
at first proposed to fight the Mexicans. Taylor was sent at once 
to bar all approach across the Rio Grande. He marched with all 
the men he could raise ; not a very large army, but the Americans 
had great faith in their own proAvess, and not so much faith in 
the valor of the Mexicans. War was not yet declared either, and 
the general hoped to get more troops when war was fully decided 
upon . 



376 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

When Taylor and his army reached the borders of the Rio Grande, 
after their long march over the plains of Texas, it was beautiful 
spring Aveather ; the air was fresh and sweet, the banks of the river 
were bright with flowers ; they fancied they could feel cool breezes 
blowing from the sea, so delicious after their hard and dusty march. 
On the opposite river bank lay the Mexican town of INIatamoras. It 
was bowered in trees, and looked like a pleasant village of scatter- 
ing houses, never intended to be the scene of war. But already the 
shore in front of the town bristled with angry looking cannon, and 
the Mexicans were busy preparing defenses along the line of the 
river. As soon as he arrived, Taylor, on his part, began to defend 
the eastern bank of the river in dispute, and the fii'st earth was dug 
for a fort opposite Matamoras, and named Fort Brown. 

This was the last of March. Taylor lingei-ed here till INlay, yet 
no news of a declaration of war had been received from government. 
On the 1st of May General Taylor decided to leave Fort Brown, 
with the main part of his army, arid go to a point farther down the 
river, whieli he feared Avas not sufficiently protected. He left a 
suudl garrison in the fort, commanded by Major Brown, and a 
battery commanded by Captain Bragg, which afterward had an 
opportunity to make itself famous. As soon as the general's back 
was turned, the guns from ]\Iatamoras opened on the little fort, and 
shot and shell rattled across the river. It made a great deal of noise, 
but really did very little damage. The American guns kept silent, 
thinking it wise to save their powder, and for four days the enemy 
kept up the siege with little return of their fire from the Amer- 
icans, who were short of powder, and constantly hoping General 
Taylor would return and relieve them. 

On the fifth morning of the siege the garrison could see the Mex- 
icans strengthening themselves for an attack, and were awaiting 
it with some anxiety, when all at once the dull booming of distant 
cannon announced to both sides that a battle had begun elsewhere. 
Besieged and besiegers forgot their own defense and attack in this 
new sound, fraught with an equal interest to both. It was the roar 
of the guns from Palo Alto, the first battle-field in the Mexican 
War, which reached Fort Brown and Matamoras. Let us hasten 
thither and see what fortune waits on our arms. 

Palo Alto means " tall timber," and the battle has its name 
from a wood which skirted the plain, over which Taylor's troops 
were marching on their return to Fort Brown, when the Mexicans 



BEGINNING OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 877 

burst upon their sight, drawn up to meet them, in all the splendor 
of battle. They shared the gorgeous taste of the native Indians 
for bright colors, and the glitter and brilliancy of their uniforms 
almost dazzled the eyes of our soldiers as they first saw their foe 
Avith the fervid southern sun shining on their ranks. The Mexicans, 
6,000 strong, looked as if the birds of their tropical forests had lent 
them their rainbow hues for the battle, while the Americans, less 
than 2,300 in number, in their plain army blue, resembled the 
quiet snow-birds of the North, hardly at home in this gorgeous 
clime. 

The battle began early in the morning, and soon raged over the 
whole plain. The American artillery did good service, and charge 
after charge of the enemy was repulsed even from the very mouth 
of the guns. In the midst of the battle the tall dr}^ grass of the 
plain took fire from the guns, and in a moment, to add to the hor- 
ror, great sheets of flame and smoke rolled over the prairie. It 
drove both armies before it, and when it had passed by, leaving a 
blackened waste behind, the Mexicans had lost their position. Tay- 
lor, cool in every moment of battle, had advanced and gained an 
advantage. The firing was kept up till night, but the Mexican 
volleys grew fainter and fainter, and when the day ended tiiey had 
fallen back towards the river. That night all slept, worn out with 
the day's strife, only a little distance apart. Can you fancy the 
two armies, with their cannon silent, the sounds of war hushed, 
lying on the blood-stained, blackened field, under the quiet night 
sky, ready to rise and renew the scenes of carnage at the next 
dawn ? All night the cries of the wounded, who cannot sleep, arise 
from the field. Here and there the dim light of a lantern borne by 
surgeons and their assistants seeking out those who have fallen, 
gleams on the ghastly faces, pale in death, and on the convulsed 
and agonized faces of the dying. It is a horrible sight, this battle- 
field, is it not ? 

Next morning, when the sun rose, it showed the Mexicans in- 
trenched in a deep ravine which crossed the road, their artillery 
sweeping the pass and making approach seem impossible. But 
Taylor's men rose like giants refreshed by slumber. In one charge 
they swept throught the enemy's batteries, leaped the guns, bayon- 
eted the gunners, and camied the day at Resaca de la Palma. So 
the second day's battle ended also in victory. 

Although they largely outnumbered the Americans, the Mexicans 



378 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

were forced to give way before men who fought with such fviry. 
They fell back, then retreated, then turned and ran for the river. 
The little garrison at Fort Brown anxiously looking out for news, 
beheld the enemy hurrying pell-mell for the Rio Grande. There 
were no boats to receive them except one flat boat, soon filled by 
the crowding fugitives. Many plunged in and attempted to swim ; 
many were trampled under the feet of men and horses ; wild uproar 
and confusion filled the river and its banks. Along the opposite 
shore crowded the people of Matamoras, the sisters, daughters, and 
wives of those slain in the battle, anxiously straining their eyes for 
the sight of their friends who left them a little while before in 
health and hope, to meet their death upon the field. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

INVASION OF MEXICO. 



Army of the West. — Conquest of New Mexico. — Fremont, the Explorer of the Rocky Mount- 
ains. — He enters California. — Kit Carson. — Fremont declares California an Independent 
State. — The Army of the Centre. — " Rough and Ready." — Bragg's Battery. — Victory 
of Buena Vista. — Five Thousand Miles' March. 

Nine days after the battle of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, 
Taylor and his army crossed the Rio Grande and took up their 
quarters in Matamoras. All the smaller towns in the vicinity sur- 
rendered and were occupied by our troops. Henceforth all the 
fighting was to be done on Mexican soil and the war was carried 
into the towns and cities, to the very firesides of the Mexicans. 

General Arista had been commanding at Matamoras, but his want 
of success in keeping back the Americans had made him unpopular. 
He was now in disgrace, and General Ampudia was the officer com- 
manding the Mexicans. During this simimer of 1846 Taylor heard 
that Ampudia was collecting his forces at Monterey a town among 
the mountains of Sierra Madre, and that the town had been fortified 
to resist an attack from the Americans. 

In August he decided to march on Monterey and endeavor to take 
it. General Worth, an able officer in the United States army, 
had now joined Taylor, and the united forces amounted to about 
9,000. Of these 6,500 were destined for the march on Monterey. 

Early in September the army reached the beautiful plain em- 



INVASION OF MEXICO. 879 

^.bosomed among mountains, on which the city is built. The San 
Juan River encircles the pleasant town on one side, and all about it 
the heights of the Sierras rise above the city, lying half hid by its 
clustering trees. On one of the heights, commanding the city, was 
the bishop's palace, a stately pile of white limestone, with the 
green, white, and red flag of the republic floating from its top. 
The palace and the hillside bristled with cannon, and on all the 
heights about the city, the black yawning mouths of these instru- 
ments of death stood ready to pour their volleys into the ranks of 
the invading army. To the north was the stone citadel, showing a 
gun at every loop-hole, and affording an impregnable shelter to the 
besieged army if all other defenses failed. To look at her prepara- 
tion it seemed impossible to believe that any army could take a city 
with every avenue so guarded as that of Monterey. 

The Americans sat quietly down three miles from the city, while 
their officers settled on the best mode of attack, and studied point 
by point the enemy's defenses. On the 19th of September the plans 
were made and the army began to move. General Worth led his 
division around to the west to attack in the rear the palace of the 
bishop, and Taylor with the main army began cannonading the 
centre of the town. On the 21st of September the firing began 
from Taylor's batteries, answered by the roar of the great guns of 
the citadel. All through that day the thunder of artillery deafened 
the ear. Just before dusk (leneral Worth took the batteries on the 
height nearest the palace of the bishop, and turned the captured 
guns against the defenses. At night the soldiers on both sides lay 
down to rest in the midst of a terrific thunder-storm. Many of the 
Americans, without shelter, lay on the bare earth, exposed to the 
drenching rain. Next morning, almost before day-break, the assault 
on the bishop's palace was made. It was brief, and ended in vic- 
tory. The flag of Mexico was pulled down, and the " red, white, 
and blue " was seen waving over the turrets of this stronghold. 

In the mean time Taylor's army wei-e hammering away at the de- 
fenses in front of the town. On the morning of the 22d they 
entered the streets of the city and fought their way inch by inch 
towards the citadel. Every street was barricaded and protected by 
cannon, which swept a deadly fire down the ranks of the Americans. 
They literally dug their way through the opposing barriers, driving 
the besieged army closer and closer to the citadel, until they were 
forced to take refuge in its sheltering walls. By sunset on the 22d 



380 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Taylor's army held the town as securely as Worth held the palace, 
(^nly the bastioned front of the citadel opposed itself to the besieg- 
ers, and behind those walls lay General Ampudia and his army, 
defeated and broken in numbers and courage. They had fought 
bravely, and with the earnestness of men who fight on their own 
soil. Next morning when they proposed to surrender. General Tay- 
lor gave them generous terms. He allowed them to march out of 
the citadel with all their side arms, and pledged himself not to fol- 
low or attack them until eight weeks had expired. Thus on the 
23d of September the strong city of Monterey fell into the hands of 
onr army. We had paid for it with one hmidred and twenty men 
killed, three hundred and sixty-eight wounded. 

In the mean time, while Taylor was marching from the Rio 
Grande to Monterey, victorious in every encounter, the Ameri- 
can arms were gaining 
easy victories elsewhere. 
Three divisions of the 
United States army were 
penetrating into the re- 
public of Mexico, and 
already the United States 
flag waved over many 
Mexican towns in token 
of conquest. 

The first of these three 
divisions was the gallant 
"Army of the West," commanded 
by General Stephen Kearney. It 
started from Fort Leavenworth, Kan- 
sas, for its long march to the Mexi- 
can border in the month of June, a 
few weeks after Taylor's victory at 
Palo Alto. The destination of the 
The Spanish Bayonet. troops was the town of Santa Fe, the 

largest in New Mexico and the most famons trading place between 
Mexico, Texas, and the United States. 

Fort Leavenworth is on the Missouri River in Kansas, and is now 
surrounded by one of the flourishing cities of the West. Then it 
was a lonely military fort, far away from civilization, with great 
plains roamed over by the wolf and bison, stretching away to the 




INVASION OF MEXICO. 



381 



west and south. Over these broad spreading plains, covered with 
sage bush, tufts of gray buffalo grass, and the sharp pointed cactus, 
the army took its inarch. Except where an occasional river, bordered 
bv cotton-wood trees, crept slowly through the plain, the way was 
barren and treeless. Sometimes they met vast herds of the buffalo 
traveling north for the summer. At night the howling of the prai- 
rie wolf often disturbed the slumbers of the camp. Tiie only other 
inhabitant of the plain were the prairie dogs, whose towns were built 
thickly all along the northern part of their journey. As the sol- 
diers marched through these " prairie dog towns," the bright eyed 




Prairie Dogs. 

little animals would sit erect on their haunches, blinking cunningly 
at the men, then suddenly turning tail would dart into their holes 
and disappear in the underground labyrinth where they dwelt. 

After a march of more than a month the sight of the Arkansas 
River cheered the eyes of the weary travelers, and a little rest at 
Bent's Fort on its banks refreshed them after their long march. 
From thence to Santa Fe the way was less monotonous, sometimes 
leading among grand old mountains and scenery of surpassing 
beauty. Early in August they set foot in the Territory of New 



382 



STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Mexico, the northern line of the Mexican possessions. Kearney's 
proceedings were executed with military brevity and decision. 
Whenever he entered a town — they were all miserable, badly built 
villages of adobe houses in this region — he summoned the alcaid or 
Mayor of the place, and asked him to take the oath of allegiance to 
the United States, for himself and the inhabitants. The trembling 
alcaid, surrounded by American troops, could do no better than 
comply, and usually took the oath without hesitation. Sometimes 
he ventured to hope his religion should not be interfered with, and 
General Kearney assured him he might be as devout a Roman Cath- 
olic as he liked, if he would be true to the United States. Thus 
toAvn after town was left with the stars and stripes Hying above its 
walls of mud brick, and Kearney, who was a hearty soldier, and not 
unpopular with the Mexicans, went triumphantly on to Santa Fe. 
At first this town made preparations for defense, but hearing that 
the country had surrendered without resistance, hopeless of success 
against the inv9,ders, concluded to make no show of battle. Kearney 




Mexican Town. 



marched peacefully into the town, conciliated the people with prom- 
ises of the best possible treatment if they would be faithful to the 
government he represented, unfurled his flag from the palace of the 
Mexican governor, and fired a cannon salute in honor of his conquest. 
As the sound reverberated over the scene of his bloodless victor}^ 




25 



Conquest of New Mexico. 



INVASION OF MEXICO. 385 

Kearney said proudly, " There, my guns proclaim that the flag of 
the United States floats over the capital." Thus ended the conquest 
of New Mexico. 

After Kearney's success here he took part 'of his troops, leaving 
the rest to guard his newly acquired possessions, and started to sub- 
due Upper California. That country in the mean time had been the 
scene of another conquest, only a little more difficult to achieve than 
that of New Mexico. 

In the spring of 1845, one year befoi-e war was declared, a young 
lieutenant, named John Charles Fremont, had been given the rank 
of captain in the United States army. There were few officers who 
deserved promotion better. For several years He had been explor- 
ing the Avestern territories of his country ; had crossed the Rocky 
Mountains, climbing one of its loftiest peaks ; explored its mountain 
passes ; followed the courses of unknown rivers in the west, and 
sought out a new path to the Pacific Ocean. No discoverer, since 
the days of Lewis and Clarke, had done so much to open up the 
geography of our western country, as Captain John C. Fremont. 

Soon after he had received his new rank, he set out with a com- 
pany on an expedition to Oregon. His way lay across the Sierra ♦• 
Nevada Mountains, which separated the United States from Upper 
California, then a part of the Mexican possessions. Over these 
mountains Fremont took his way with his company of brave men, 
and descended into California in the winter of 1846. He went to 
Monterey, California, and asked permission of the Mexican governor 
of the province, to pass through his territories on his way to Oregon. 
But the Mexican, distrusting all the United States troops, although 
the war had not yet begun, refused his 
permission, and acted as if he believed 
Fremont's design was a hostile one. 
There was a dispute and a close ap- 
proach to a battle near Monterey, but 
Fremont finally marched to Oregon 
without any actual outbreak between 
them. 

The adventures in their journey to 
Oregon were very interesting. Once 
the party were attacked by Indians 
while sleeping peacefully in their tents, Kit carson. 

unconscious of danger. Spr-inging up in the dark, they met the sav- 




386 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

ages in a liand-to-hand fight, and drove off the Indians after a 
desperate struggle. One of Fremont's guides was the famous Kit 
Carson, who had Uved for years the life of a mountaineer in these 
wild regions. No story could be dull in which Carson was one of 
tlie heroes. We cannot follow this little band to Oregon, but will 
meet them as they come back to San Francisco Bay in the spring 
of 1846. 

The first news which then reached Captain Fremont was the in- 
telligence that Governor De Castro — the very governor who had 
shown such open hostility -to and distrust of his expedition to Ore- 
gon — was raising troops to attack and drive out the American set- 
tlers in California. Already war had been declared between the 
United States and California, but this news had not yet reached 
the distant shores of the Pacific. Fremont at once decided that the 
rights of his countrymen settled there should be maintained, and on 
June 1st he surprised and captured a fort of the enemy at the town 
of Sonoma. A few days later he met a party of De Castro's men, 
and a slight skirmish ensued, in which, as usual, the Americans 
were victorious. On the 4th of July Fremont called all the Amer- 
'icans together at this captured post of Sonoma, and declared Cali- 
fornia a " free and independent State." A few days later Commo- 
dore Stockton of the American nav}^ hoisted the stars and stripes 
over Monterey, and declared it a conquered town. Fremont has- 
tened to join Stockton, and the two entered Los Angeles, the capital 
of California, and took it in the name of the United States. Cal- 
ifornia, largely settled by Americans, was easily brought under sub- 
jection, and there was very little more bloodshed in this conquest, 
than in that of New Mexico. 

The third division which contributed to our successes this year was 
the division of General Wool, formed of Illinois troops, and named 
the " Army of the Centre." Wool was an officer in the War of 
1812, and had fought bravely on the Canada border, where Scott 
had gained his laurels. He was sent with his army to invade the 
province of Chihuahua, at the same time Kearney was sent to 
New Mexico. But after a hot summer march through Texas, he 
found a high mountain wall which barred his entrance into the 
province he was seeking ; and turning in a southerly direction, he 
went to join a part of Taylor's division quartered at Saltillo, not far 
from Monterey. 

Wool arrived at Saltillo in December, and found General Taylor 




INVASION OF MEXICO. 387 

and General Worth busily preparing for another battle. The com- 
mander-in-chief of the whole Mexican army was gathering a force 
of 20,000 men in the capital of the province of 
San Luis Potosi, with which he hoped to crush 
the Americans who had fought at Monterey. 
This commander was Genertd Santa Anna, a 
famous patriot, who had fought against Spain for 
Mexican freedom, had been president of the re- 
public, and was one of their best and bravest 
soldiers. He had already lost one leg in battle, 
but even thus disabled was a match for many a 
warrior with the full complement of legs and arms. santa Anna 

It was to aid in repulsing General Santa Anna that Wool had 
fortunately joined General Worth at Saltillo. While they waited 
for battle, news came that General Scott had landed with an army 
at the town of Vera Cruz on the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. 
Orders were sent that all the troops which Taylor could spare 
should be sent there at once. This at a time Avlien Santa Anna's 
army, reported to be of overwhelming numbers, was just ready to 
engage him. But " old Zacli Taylor," or old " Rough and Read}^" 
as he was called after his Mexican victories, was too good a soldier 
to grumble. He sent all his troops except 5,500 to Scott, and tak- 
ing up a strong position in a narrow mountain valley on the road 
between Monterey and Saltillo, waited for the enemy. The place 
where he intrenched himself was hemmed in by rugged mountains 
and narrowed to a gorge hardly wider than an ordinary road, called 
the pass of Angostura. The valley was known as Buena Vista or 
"Fine View," and was a very strong point for the occupation of an 
army. Here, on the morning of the 22d of February, the day our 
nation celebrates as Washington's birth-day, — the armies came in 
sight of each other. It was not until the 23d that the fighting 
began. The American battle-cry was, " To the memory of Washing- 
ton," and inspired by that memory, every man did his best. 

I have told you that Taylor's whole army was 5,500. Santa Anna 
admitted that he had 20,000 men. With such a difference we could 
never have hoped for victory, if the position of Buena Vista had not 
been almost impregnable. It was like a strong castle wliich a few 
men could hold against immense numbers. The battery stationed 
in the pass of Angostura swept down any force which ventured near 
its narrow throat. 



388 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Still it was a terrible contest, and before night the mountain 
slopes were red with human blood. Many times the scale of victory 
hung so evenly balanced that the slightest turn would have given 
the day to Santa Anna. Once near the day's close, a party of 
American cavalry were contending with an overj)owering force of the 
enemy in a deep gully which entered the valley. Taylor was 
watching with intense anxiety the efforts of the troops in repelling 
the attack. If they were defeated at this point, the enemy would 
rush in, in such numbers that the rout of the Americans appeared 
inevitable. At this moment Captain Bragg with his battery, the 
one that had seen service at Fort Brown in the early stages of the 
war, was ordered to the relief of the cavalry. He advanced and 
loading his guns with grape-shot poured one volley into the enemy's 
ranks. They wavered for a moment and then charged. Again the 
grape poured in among them, cutting them down like grass before 
the sickle. Still the ranks closed up with new men and the advance 
continued. " A little more grape, Captain Bragg," said General 
Taylor, coolly, as for the third time the Mexicans advanced. That 
" little more " was too much for the enemy. Their ranks were 
broken and dispersed, and from that moment victory was with the 
Americans. Santa Anna fell back, leaving his dead and wounded 
behind him. He could not recover his army sufficiently to make 
another attack, and soon retreated, leaving Taylor and his allies, 
Worth and Wool, covered with glory. This was the last battle of 
Taylor's campaign in Mexico. Scott was. already advancing on the 
capital, and with his movements we must now occupy ourselves. 
Taylor, feeling that his work was done, returned home, to hear his 
name sounded as the " hero of Monterey and Buena Vista." 

After Kearney's army had entered Santa Fe, one division of it 
was at once sent off to join General Wool, who everybody supposed 
had gone, according to directions, to the province of Chihuahua 
lying directly south of New Mexico. This division, of eight hun- 
dred men was given to Colonel Doniphan of St. Louis. It was 
composed of men who were used to long marches, for they had 
already traveled from Leavenworth to Santa F^, a march of nine 
hundred miles. In coming from the north they kept in the rear of 
the high mountains which had barred Wool's progress from the east 
and caused him to make his detour to the south to join Taylor. 
They found instead a barren waste, often without roads or any land- 
mai'ks by which the way could be tracked. To set out thus into 



SCOTT'S MARCH TO MEXICO. 389 

the heart of an enemy's country, with so small a force, required 
sound judgment and clear common sense, as much as bravery. 
Doniphan led his men to Chihuahua, the State where once flour- 
ished the richest mining of Mexico. From these almost inex- 
haustible veins of ore, the race of Montezuma had drawn the 
rich metal which decorated their palaces when Cortez came there 
a conqueror. Still later, the Spaniards had compelled the natives 
to work the mines, and for a century flooded Spain with their sup- 
plies of treasure. When Doniphan entered the province with his 
men, it contained only scattered villages of miserable houses, 
with inhabitants without energy or enterprise. 

He did not reach the capital of Chihuahua altogether without 
opposition, since the Mexican had several times given battle. Once 
as his men were gathering wood for their camp fires, the enemy 
came upon them, but fled at the first attack from the Americans. 
Again, in crossing the Sacramento, a small tributary of the Rio 
Grande, the passage was hotly contested, and more than a hundred 
Mexicans were killed there. 

When Doniphan reached Chihuahua he learned that Wool had 
not been there, but had gone instead to Satillo. He immediately 
followed, and reached that place to find the battle of Buena Vista 
fought and won, Taylor's campaign ended, and the old hero prepar- 
ing to go home. There was nothing for Colonel Doniphan's soldiers 
to do but march quickly to the Rio Grande, where they took ship for 
New Orleans, and were there mustered out of service. So ended 
one of the longest marches in history. In one year this corps com- 
manded by Doniphan had marched 5,000 miles, over a country of 
which the geography was almost unknown. 



CHAPTER XXH. 

SCOT'J'S MARCH TO MEXICO. 

The Fortress of San Juan D'UlIoa. — Vera Cruz. — The Road to the Mexico. — Cerro Gordo or 
"Big Hill." —The Ascent of the Hill. — In the Cordilleras. —The Defenses of Mexico. — 
The Hill at Contreras. — The Bridge at Churubusco.— The King's Mill. —Grasshopper 
Hill. — School-boys' Defense of their Academy. — Entry into Mexico. — End of War. 

The town of Vera Cruz in Mexico was accounted one of the 
strongest places in all the republic of the south. It was a well 
built city, lying on the shores of the Gulf, just where it curves deep- 



390 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Intrenchments at Vera Cruz. 



est into the land, and was protected by the famous fortress of San 
Juan D'UUoa, now more than two hundred and fifty years old. 
This old castle was situated on a bar half a mile from the city, with 

guns pointing from every side, threat- 
ening to sweep any fleet out of the 
water that should venture within can- 
non range. Vera Cruz also had guns 
mounted at every assailable point, 
and flattered herself that she could 
not be taken by any enemy. It 
was in front of this city and castle 
that General Scott with his grand 
"Army of Invasion " sat down for a siege in March, 1847. Scott 
had been joined by Generals Twiggs, Pillow, and Quitman, with 
their divisions. They had been part of General Taylor's army and 
were sent in answer to the demand for troops. After Buena Vista, 
General Worth also joined Scott, whose forces now numbered about 
12,000. 

These troops had been landed on a barren coast, covered with 
hillocks of sand, three miles below the city. There, amid terrific 
gales called " northers," not unlike the simoons of the desert, the 
soldiers worked day and night on their trenches, getting ready to 
bombard the city. So fierce were these " northers," that a man 
lying down to rest would in a few minutes be covered out of sight 
by heaped up sand, and the hillocks were constantly shifting their 
places under the influence of the wind. In spite of difficulties the 
trenches were made, batteries planted, and the cannon began its 
assault on town and castle. Roar answered roar, till the ear grew 
deaf in listening to these thunder peals, while flash and smoke blinded 
the eyes, and filled the whole air with alternate light and darkness. 
For nine days this bombardment continued, till the governor of 
Vera Cruz sent out offers to surrender. Both town and castle gave 
up, and on the 29th of March Scott entered Vera Cruz in person, 
and sent a garrison to hold the castle. The greatest stronghold on 
the gulf coast was in possession of the Americans. 

The plan of the commander-in-chief had for its principal aim the 
capture of the city of Mexico, the capital of the republic. This 
was the ancient city into which Cortez had ridden in the pride of 
conquest. It was the ancient seat of the Aztecs, the site of the 
palaces of the Montezumas, one of the oldest cities on this conti- 




SCOTT'S MARCH TO MEXICO. 391 

nent. It was built in a beautiful plain lying in the midst of the 
Cordilleras Mountains, and watered by the streams from its sides. 
These mountain courses had formed numer- 
ous lakes, which gemmed the plain with 
their clear blue waters, making the contrast 
with the bright greenness of the plain one of 
remarkable beauty. In the middle of this 
plain lay the capital city, the pride of all 
Mexico. 

The road thither from Vera Cruz, through 
which Scott prepared to march, wound 
among rugged and steep mountains. Be- 
tween the two cities lay the heights of Cerro °'"'''' ^""• 
Gordo (where Santa Anna now lurked with his army), the strong 
fortress of Perote, the walled town of Puebla, all prepared to re- 
sist invasion. At the end of this perilous way was Mexico, every 
point guarded and double guarded against the expected attack. 

Cerro Gordo was the nearest point that opposed Scott's advance. 
Cerro Gordo, which means " big hill," was a height one thousand 
feet above the plain, from which the road ascended over the mount- 
ain-spur of the Cordilleras. Over this road Scott meant to pass, 
and right in his way stood the stony castle of Cerro Gordo, which 
crowned the topmost point of the hill, while all about was battery 
upon battery held by Santa Anna and his army of fifteen thousand. 

To advance in the face of such a fire as would meet the troops 
from that castle and the mountain slopes around, was more than 
madness. Scott did not propose to lead his soldiers into the jaws of 
death. He ordered instead that a new road should be cut in the 
rear, creeping np behind the enemy toward the key to the position, 
the castle of Cerro Gordo. For three days, as silently and surely 
as ants and moles dig in the earth, the men worked, without being 
discovered by the enemy. Then it was too late to stop them. 
They already commanded a position which overlooked all but the 
castle. All night on the night of the 17th of April Twiggs's divis- 
ion were slowly and painfully dragging the guns of their battery 
up this height. When all was done they sank exhausted on the 
ground to catch a brief slumber before the battle. 

At day-break on the 18th they were all up and stirring. Twiggs's 
division on the left, Pillow in front, they march on the enemy. Up 
the very face of the steep — so steep that the soldiers clutch at twigs 



392 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and bushes to aid their ascent — climb Colonel Harney and his 
regiment to storm the fortress on the top. The enemy's guns belch 
fire and smoke in their faces. The front rank, wounded and dead, 
fall and roll back down the hill, under the feet of their advancing 
comrades. The ranks fill up and press on without wavering, till 
the height is gained. They enter the works, pull down the flag of 
green, white, and red, and the " red, white, and blue " is hoisted in 
its place. The day is over, and the second stronghold between the 
Gulf and Mexico is in the hands of our army. 

Santa Anna and his army fled beyond pursuit. They did not 
wait to defend Perote or Puebla, but went on to Mexico without 
delay. The last of April Worth entered Perote and captured im- 
mense stores of arms and ammunition. With hardly a breath of re- 
sistance he rode into Puebla. By the middle of May every strong 
point except Mexico was occupied, and General Scott waited to re- 
fresh himself in the pleasant old city of Puebla before his final 
attack, which would end his campaign in Mexico. 

Scott was in Puebla in August. He was not wasting his time 
here in inglorious ease, but stayed, endeavoring to patch up his 
broken army, in which disease and death had made such havoc that 
the regiments were mere skeletons, and the great army had 
dwindled to 5,000 able men. All the road was marked by hospitals, 
where the sick were left with little hope of recovery. Something 
in this air, clear and pure as it seemed, among mountain tops, was 
fatal to American constitutions. 

In August, the army — General Twiggs in advance — left 
Puebla. Reinforcements under General Franklin Pierce and Gen- 
eral Cadwallader had arrived from Vera Cruz, and with an army 
swelled to nearly 11,000, Scott decided to advance. On the fourth 
day of the month they reached the highest point of the mountain 
road leading to their goal ; looking down the slope they saw at their 
feet the beautiful plain of Mexico gemmed with silver, sparkling 
lakes, and bright green fields, while in the centre, like a pearl in its 
setting, lay the famous city of Mexico. 

On the 18th of August Scott encamped with General Worth's 
corps at San Augustine, a village nine miles from the walls of 
Mexico. Twiggs, Pillow, and Quitman, with their divisions, were 
in the vicinity. The final struggle was close at hand. In front of 
our army, five miles away, the camp of General Valencia with his 
6,000 men, the very flower of the Mexican soldiery, whitened 



SCOTT'S MARCH TO*MEXICO. 393 

the hill-sides of Contreras. The crest of the hill was black with a 
battery of twenty-two great guns. Still nearer the city, on one of 
the main avenues of approach, was the hamlet of Churubusco, lying 
on a little stream which bore the same name. Across this stream 
was a bridge flanked with cannon. A line of guns ran from the 
bridge's head to an old gray convent-church, now turned into a cit- 
adel, mounting guns at every available loop-hole. Between these 
three guarded points were great beds of lava, with sharp and jag- 
ged points, making a march of soldiery over it next to impossible. 
Inside this triangle of fortifications was Santa Anna, with his main 
array, 12,000 strong. Such were the obstacles which must be 
overcome in the first advance towards Mexico. To take the hill 
and battery at Contreras, carry the bridge and hamlet at Churu- 
busco, force Santa Anna to fall back nearer the city, was plainly 
the thing to be done before our army could control the main road to 
Mexico. 

The night of the 19th of August was planned for the attack on 
Contreras. It was a dreary night, a cold rain drenching the officers, 
and men, who lay Avithout shelter, too tired to cook their suppers, 
and too wet to sleep. Lying hid behind some temporary intrench- 
ments, built to screen themselves from the enemy, they waited the 
approach of day. In the first gray of the morning, a part of 
Twiggs's army, led by General Persifer Smith, crept stealthily into 
a ravine which partly encircled Contreras. Their approach was so 
quiet, and conducted so secretly, that they made half the circuit of 
the hill, climbed the slope, and were in the rear of the Mexicans, in 
a position almost between the main post of their army and the bat- 
teries, before they were seen. In fifteen minutes from the time they 
were discovered, they had taken the guns, broken the ranks of the 
enemy, and were following them down the hill in hot pursuit to- 
wards Mexico. They did not give up the chase until they heard 
the roar of guns at Churubusco, where Worth's corps was already 
storming the bridge's head. Then they turned to mingle in this 
new tide of battle, steadily advancing towards the walls of the city. 

Worth was fighting gallantly at the bridge. Twiggs ordered his 
men to storm the church, a strong building, and capable of making a 
gallant defense. In the rear of the church, on the open field, sev- 
eral thousand of Santa Anna's men were engaged with the brigades 
of Pierce and Shields. Thus three battles were raging at once in 
three different points about the doomed village. Two hours and a 



394 THE STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

half of this fierce contest, and a great shout proclaimed that the 
bridge had given way, and Worth's troops were rushing over vic- 
torious. Half an hour more and the white flag of surrender flut- 
tered from the convent walls. Still a little later, and the corps of 
Shields were pursuing the Mexicans along the road to the city. 
The impulsive Captain Philip Kearney, his left arm hanging 
wounded at his side, followed so close at the enemy's heels that he 
only reined up his horse at the very gates of Mexico, and was 
obliged to ride back again to rejoin his corps. When the sun set 
on the evening of the 20th of August, Contreras and Churubusco 
•were both in possession of the Americans. 

The day after these victories Scott advanced to Tacubaya, only 
two miles and a half from the city. A messenger met him, bearing 
a flag from Santa Anna, who had retreated behind the city walls. 
He asked an armistice, or cessation of fighting, for a short time, 
while an American commissioner, who had arrived from Washing- 
ton, might talk with the Mexican government about peace. Scott 
waited till the 7th of September, and then believing that Santa 
Anna had no real intention of making peace, but was strengthen- 
ing himself with a view to further hostilities, he declared the armis- 
tice over, and proceeded to remove the last obstacles to his entrance 
into Mexico. 

The main barrier now was the heights of Chapultepec, or " Grass- 
hopper Hill," a rocky precipice, on which was the military college 
of Mexico, now turned into a fortress, very strong and formidable. 
At the foot of these heights, about two thirds of a mile from Scott's 
camp, were two stone buildings, well guarded. The most important 
of these was Molino del Key, which means " The king's mill." It 
was filled with arms and supplies of war, and a strong force rested 
there. A quarter of a mile distant in a straight line, was the Casa 
de Mata, another stone building also occupied by the Mexicans; 
while between the two buildings and connecting them, were sta- 
tioned heavy batteries. This strongly fortified line guarded the 
foot of Chapultepec. 

Three o'clock in the morning of the 8th of September, the twi- 
light not yet gray in the east, the troops were marching to attack 
this line. Their 'orders were to attack and capture the two build- 
ings and the batteries, destroy all stores found in the strongholds, 
and then fall back to their encampment. Chapultepec Avas not to 
be stormed that day. 



SCOTT'S MARCH TO MEXICO. 395 

The army had learned to obey orders literally. During the whole 
war to plan the capture of a fortification, had been only followed by 
the execution of the plan. The men had grown to believe that vic- 
tory was always with their army, and this belief no doubt aided to 
success. The battle of Molino del Rey was no exception. The 
King's INlill was taken and sacked. Casa de Mata also was taken, 
and before evening the cannon of the enemy's batteries enriched 
Scott's camp at Tacubaya. Only the fortress crowned heights of 
Chapultepec remained. 

Chapultepec, as I said before, was a rocky hill, one hundred and 
fifty feet high. On three sides it was a rocky precipice, too steep 
to climb. On the west it sloped more gradually to the plain, and 
was quite thickly wooded. A stone wall surrounded its base, and 
a splendid building with domed roof, over which could be seen fly- 
ing the tri-color of Mexico, surmounted it. It remained now the 
forlorn hope of the Mexicans. After this, nothing but the city walls 
could oppose the victorious course of their enemies. 

All night, on the 11th of September, the Americans were engaged 
in planting batteries at the point from which they would do most 
damage to the fortress. All next day these batteries rained shot and 
shell on the roof, the battlements, the walls of the beautiful building. 
At night, when the firing stopped, many a ragged aperture in roof 
and side showed how sure had been the destructive work of the fjuns. 

The next day Scott decided to storm the heights. Two columns, 
one under Pillow, the other commanded by Quitman, were to ap- 
proach from points as widely diverging as the ascent would admit. 
They were each led by an advance of two hundred and fifty men, 
furnished with ladders to scale the walls of the building. 

Up they go, straight up the heights, in the very mouths of the 
cannon. Pillow falls wounded at the head of his column. "• Take 
me up," he begs his soldiers, " that I may be in at the victory." 
His soldiers carry him up, still under the terrible fire. They gain 
the top of the heights, the ladders are thrown against the walls. 
The men scramble over, pell-mell, and meet the Mexicans hand to 
hand, inside the building. Among its defenders are a hundred boys, 
from ten to twenty years old, the students of the military school, 
fighting like lions to defend the walls, which only a little while be- 
fore had been the scene of peaceful study, or of mock battle. " They 
were pretty little fellows, and fought gallantlj'^," says one of our own 
officers, who was there that day. '' Pretty little fellows ! " I am 



396 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

sad when I think of their faces dabbled with blood, or convulsed 
with the agony of a gunshot wound, or when I think of the mothers 
whose sons, hardly more than babies, were in that cruel fight. Soon 
the waiting army below gives a great shout, as they see the stars 
and stripes go up over the dome in token of victory ; and thus the 
last battle of the Mexican War is ended. 

That night Santa Anna fled, with the government and all the 
oflficers of the republic. Next morning, before day-break, the city 
officers waited upon Scott to tell him there need be no more slaughter. 
The city was his. By seven o'clock on that morning, the 14th of 
Septembei-, 1847, General Scott, followed by his army, rode into 
the grand square of the city. Once more Mexico was conquered. 
From their first entrance into the republic, our soldiers had carried 
everything before them. A succession of victories marked their 
course from the Rio Grande. 

The Mexicans were glad to accept peace on our own terms. By 
February 2, 1848, the two nations signed a treaty by which we 
gained an undisputed right to Texas and the new Territories of Cal- 
ifornia and New Mexico. For almost one hundred years the United 
States has been a nation. The Mexican War is the first and only 
war which she has waged to extend her borders. Let us hope in 
the name of humanity that it may be the last. 

While we were fighting the Mexicans, we settled peacefully a 
dispute with Great Britain which might have led to another war, if 
we had not been amicably disposed towards her. The dispute was 
about our northern boundary line in Oregon. The United States 
had claimed that its Territory of Oregon extended north to the fifty- 
fourth degree of latitude. You will see by looking on the map that 
this brought in a good slice of what is now the British possessions. 
In 1846, just as the Mexican War began, we signed an agreement 
to take the forty-ninth degree of latitude for our boundary line, and 
so the matter ended. 

The last event of Polk's administration was the admission of tlie 
thirtieth State into the Union. This was Wisconsin, which had 
been growing in population ever since it had been made a Territory 
twelve years before. 

Already the presidential election was at hand. Polk's work was 
over. His administration had seen the war begun and finished, and 
the president in whose time it was all accomplished, went quietly 
into retirement, and, like most other presidents, sank into the obscu- 
rity in which the life of any private citizen is passed. 



THE NEW ELDORADO. 



397 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE NEW ELDOKADO. 

General Taylor made President. — Gold in California. — The Gold Fever. — Death of Taylor. 
— Fillmore succeeds him. — Election of Franklin Pierce. 

The Whigs who had failed by Harrison's death to get the gov- 
ernment into their hands, and who had been the party out of power 
for so many years, looked about carefully for a man to represent 
them in the election of 1848, who would be sure to get votes enough 
to make him president. General Zachary Taylor seemed to be 
the man. He was honest and sincere. He was covered with glory 
won in the recent war. The soldiers he had led to victory would 
all vote for " Old Rough and Ready," and this name given him in 
the Mexican War was the catch- word of the new political campaign. 
It helped no doubt to elect him, for a man's popularity is often 
greatly aided by some ^ ,-- 

familiar title, which brings 
him closer to the hearts 
of the people. Amid the 
great joy of the Whigs, 
Taylor began his political 
government as twelfth 
president of the United 
States. 

When California was 
joined to our territory, 
nobody supposed we had 
made a very valuable ac- 
quisition. To be sure she 
had a fine strip of the 
Pacific coast, with several 
good harbors, and inter- 
secting the mountains she 
had numerous fertile val- 
leys offering good farming 
lands. But the prospect 
of settlement there seemed 
remote, and likely to be 
the work of years. In February, 1848, however, the very month 




398 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



in which Mexico and the United States signed their treaty, an 
event took place which gave an impulse to emigration to the Pacific, 
and made California an important State. An American resident of 
California named Captain Sutter, who had a great " ranche " — as 
the California settlers called their farms — in the Sacramento 
Valley, sent a man up the river to run a mill built upon its banks. 
In the sands of the region where he was at work, this man discov- 
ered some glittering yellow particles. It occurred to him that it 
might be gold that shone so in the sunshine, and he was curious 
enough about it to submit it to the test. It turned out to be pure 
gold, and from that hour the fortune of California was made. You 





San Francisco in 1849. 



can hardly imagine the excitement that followed this discovery. 
People from every part of the United States, from England, France, 
Germany, even from the unsocial continent of Asia, were landed, 
ship-load after ship-load, upon the coast of California. In 1849 the 
little Spanish settlement of San Francisco, with its scattering adobe 
houses and its old mission church, became a swarming city of tents, 
wooden shanties, and unpainted hotels, all filled to overflowing with 
new-comers to the land of gold, the new "Eldorado." The whole 
surface of the country for miles and miles around where gold was 
first found, was torn up by the eager seekers after wealth. Gold- 
dust was used in place of coined money, and prices were so enor- 





Scenery in California — Yosemite Falls. 



26 



THE NEW ELDORADO. 



401 



mous that they sound like fables. Men left their homes and families 
in the East to seek their fortunes here. The greater part failed in their 
search, or if they found wealth, found it in other ways than digging 
for it in the earth. The whole story of this California "gold fever," 
is a sad, sad story of disappointment and failure to thousands. But 
it served to populate a new State, and open up a trade on the Pacific 
coast, which has since led to the building of a railroad across this 
continent, and a commerce with the East, such as Columbus had in 
view when he started from Palos to find the new route to the Indies. 
Gold mining in California became an organized form of labor, and 
is now a feature of the State. 

In 1849 California asked to be admitted into the Union. The 
following 5'ear her petition was granted. One of the two senators 
sent first to Congress from the young State, was John Charles Fre- 
mont, now a large land-holder in the territory he had first declared 




Mining in California. 



a part of the United States. California was not admitted without a 
terrible struggle. She had decided to come in as a State without 
slaves, and the Southern States did not like that. I am going shortly 
to tell you the whole story of slavery, so I will not now go into 
detail about the California dispute. 

In the midst of it all. President Taylor, on whom the hopes of 
those opposed to slavery were set, suddenly died, in July, 1850. 
Like Harrison, he had lived hardly long enough to show what he 



402 



STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



would have clone as president. His vice-president, Millard Fillmore, 
succeeded him. 

Nothing very remarkable happened during the three j'ears in 
which Fillmore administered the government. We were a great 




c^yiulLiu^Z^ c/^^^'-wO 



and prosperous nation, all the time growing stronger, and taking a 
more assured place among the nations of the earth. In 1853, when 
Fillmore's term of office expired, General Franklin Pierce, one of 
the officers who had figured in the Mexican War, and been wounded 
at Churubusco, was elected president. I have told you from time to 
time liow the North and South, at first represented by Massachu- 
setts and Virginia, liad been growing farther and farther apart, and 
that the difference in their institutions, and especially their different 
views on the subject of slavery, had been growing more and more 
intense. At this time the slave power had grown to be the strongest 
power in the nation, and was able to elect whomsoever it chose 
to the presidency. So far the largest proportion of presidents had 
been from the South. Of the eleven men already elected to that 
office, six had been born in Virginia, and two in North CaroHna. 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 403 

The other three had been from Massachusetts and New York. As 
FiHrnore's rule drew to a close it was thought politic to select a 
Northern man for the next candidate. The Democratic party, who 
now represented the slave power of the South, chose Franklin Pierce 
of New Hampshire as the man to receive their votes, and he was 
elected and installed president in March, 1853. In his administra- 
tion the first blood in an arising civil conflict was shed on the plains 
of a new Territory called Kansas. In order that we may fully 
understand the meaning and cause of this war, I must ask you to 
read the chapters which follow on the history of slavery in our coun- 
try. Without them you cannot understand fully the history of the 
War for the Union. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SLAVERY IN UNITED STATES. 

Beginning of African Slavery. — First Triumph of Slavery in (jeorgia. — The North and 
South. — Washington's Letter to Lafayette. — Slavery in the Constitution. — The Slave- 
trade. — Turner's "Slave-ship." — Disputes about Slavery. — Chattel Votes. — California 
wants to be a Free State. — Anger of the South. 

When that Dutch trading ship of which I told you early in this 
history anchored in Jamestown harbor, and sold twenty slaves to 
the planters there, she sowed the seeds of a terrible harvest in 
America. It had been better for our dear country and for the civil- 
ized world, if that ship had sunk to the bottom with every man on 
board her, if by that shipwreck slavery could have been kept out of 
this fair, new land. But remember, we needed hands to labor in 
this country more than anything else. England could not furnish 
them fast enough, when all at once this little company of blacks 
from Africa, naked, uncivilized savages, with robust frames formed 
to endure torrid heats, in short, just the people needed to hoe the 
newly planted tobacco fields of Virginia, were offered for sale on the 
shore. 

" They will be much better off on my plantation," reasoned the 
planter, "with plenty to eat and drink, a snug little cabin to sleep 
in by night, and all the privileges of a Christian land, than when 
roaming in the uncivilized wilds of Africa, living and dying like 
beasts." 

This was good reasoning on the surface, and the generous and 



404 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

kind-liearted Virginian believed in what he said. But these 
Africans, black and degraded, were human beings still. And Nat- 
ure has one inexorable law which cannot be disputed. It is this : 
You cannot give one human being unlimited 'power over another^ no 
matter how much inferior^ without its resulting in the moral degra- 
dation of the master^ and the unjust oppression of the subject. If 
you do not believe this, read the history of the world and see if this 
statement is not everj^where proved. 

Human slavery has been practiced, more or less, ever since the 
world began. Savage and semi-civilized nations often made slaves 
of their prisoners taken in war, as you have seen John Smith, made 
prisoner in war with the Turks, working in Tartary with an iron 
collar round his neck as a badge of servitude. The Romans held 
slaves, and so did the Greeks, and there seems to have been no feel- 
ing among them that the enslaving of men and women was not a 
just and right practice. In the ancient history of the Jews, related 
in the Old Testament, that people were made slaves by the Egypt- 
ians ; and you have read the interesting story of their captivity and 
their deliverance by that grand hero of his race, the lawgiver Moses ; 
and your blood has been thrilled when you read how the escaping 
Israelites passed over the Red Sea between the mighty wall of 
waters which held back till the rejoicing host passed over. In this 
case the slaveholders were a black and the slaves a white race. In 
America this order was reversed, and the enslaved races were 
blacker than the Egyptians. For a long time the color of the 
enslaved race was urged as an excuse for tlieir being held in bond- 
age. But in the better light of to-day, you and I know that is no 
excuse at all." We know that the noble words of our Constitution, 
which says all men are free and equal, applies to all human beings 
on our country's soil, and that every man has a right to himself, his 
liberty, his wife and babies, whether he be black, or white, or yel- 
low, or copper colored. But we had a severe experience, almost as 
bitter as that of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, before we let our bond- 
men and bond-women go out into freedom. 

I told you that when Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia 
in 1732, he forbid slavery there. The institution was then one 
hundred and twelve years old in Virginia, and the planters of that 
State and the Carolinas, accomplished their field labor by the hands 
of slaves. Tlie fields of Georgia were as hot as those of South Car- 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 405 

olina, and the white laborers and planters clamored loudly for slaves 
there, saying they were no better able to work under the torrid 
heat of the sun than their South Carolina neighbors. They abused 
Oglethorpe bitterly, and a party of the disaffected planters went to 
Virginia and wrote angry letters to England about him. They vil- 
ified good John Wesley, who was in Georgia, also opposing slavery 
with all his might and main, and called him vile names, even charg- 
ing him with being a " hypocrite " in religion. All this because 
they could not get slavery. As soon as Oglethorpe's charter ex- 
pired, and George II. took command of Georgia as a royal province, 
they introduced slavery at once. So the slave-power celebrated its 
first triumph in Georgia. 

As there were no state laws against it, slavery at first crept into 
all the thirteen colonies, and the ebony-faced African " mammy," 
her head crowned with a bright turban, made of a many-colored 
handkerchief, nursed her white charges in Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut as well as Virginia. But one after another of the New 
England and Middle States began to pass laws abolishing it. Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, emancipated 
their slaves. Pennsylvania — where the good Quakers always set 
their faces against owning human beings — freed her bond-children 
gradually. So did New York and New Jersey. Gradually the 
States with slavery began to be known as the " South," the free 
States as the " North." 

Vermont had passed laws against slavery in 1777, long before she 
was admitted into the Union. A man came before a Vermont 
judge in these early days to claim a negro as his property. He 
produced a bill of sale from the former owner of the slave to prove 
his right to the man. " The court cannot admit this as evidence," 
said the judge. "Nothing but a bill of sale from the Ahniglity can 
be admitted as proof of this man's ownership to this other man." 
This anecdote marks the feeling in- Vermont. 

Before the year 1804, seven out of the thirteen original colonies 
would not have slavery at any price. The six colonies who retained 
it were Virginia, the two Carolinas, Maryland, Delaware, and 
Georgia. In Virginia, the feeling among the best men against the 
institution was as strong as in Massachusetts. Washington hated 
slavery, although he owned slaves and had them on his plantation. 
He said earnestly, " There is not a man living who desires to see a 
plan adopted for its abolition more sincerely than I." He wrote to 



406 ' STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

his beloved Lafayette : " The benevolence of your heart, my dear 
Marquis, is so conspicuous upon all occasions, that I never wonder 
at any fresh proof of it ; but your late purchase of an estate in the 
colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipate the slaves on it, is a 
generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like 
spirit might diffuse itself in the minds of the people of this country ! 
But I despair of seeing it. Some petitions were presented to the 
assembly at its last session, for the abolition of slavery, but they 
could scarcely obtain a reading." 

Jefferson, adored by his slaves at Monticello, opposed the institu- 
tion which made them his propert5^ '' I tremble for my country," 
he said mournfully, speaking of this foul blot on freedom, " when I 
reflect that God is just.'' I might quote a whole book of such pro- 
tests against slavery by the fathers of our republic. Unfortunately 
for their success in arousing the consciences of their neighbors, it 
was profitable to have slave labor, or rather, it seemed to he profit- 
able. It is possible if it had seemed equally so in New England 
and the Middle States, they might have held slaves to this day, in 
spite of the protests of their best men. Thank God that the sterile 
soil of New England offered no spot rich enough for this dragon of 
slavery to fatten on. 

When the convention met to form the Constitution, the contest 
about slavery at once began. " Touch our slaves," said Georgia 
and the Carolinas, " and we shall not join the Union." So although 
Washington, Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, and many other members 
opposed slavery, the Union was formed with it. 

Have you ever read anything about the African slave-trade ? If 
you like stories of horror, you can feed on them in reading the ac- 
counts of the voyages of ships loaded with slaves brought to be sold 
in the markets of this country, for twenty years after it was a na- 
tion. In the holds of these ships, chained together in gangs, the 
poor blacks, stolen from their native country, were packed so closely 
that they died by scores from suffocation and want of air. Some- 
times, from the sufferings they endured, terrible pestilences broke 
out among them, and often the dying as well as the dead were 
hurled, chained together, into the ocean. Sometimes the poor 
wretches, brought on deck for a brief space to breathe a few mouth- 
fuls of God's free air, staggered together to the ship's side, and 
leaped into the waves, choosing rather to die so than bear longer 
the great misery of life. 



SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. " 407 

There is a famous picture by the English artist, Turner, of a slave- 
ship, which has just passed through a terrible tempest at sea. In 
order to lighten the vessel and save the crew, the captain has thrown 
overboard his living cargo of these unhappy Africans. The lurid 
glow, which the storm has left behind, lights up the picture with 
an unearthly radiance, and in the foreground a black arm, on which 
hangs the manacles of the slave, is thrust upward from the depths, 
appealing mutely to Heaven against this wholesale murder. So for 
a century nearly, manacled hands were raised to Heaven from our 
country, in mute appeals for its justice. 

When you have read more about the horrors of the slave-trade, 
you will be more shocked by what I am obliged to relate about the 
convention which formed our Constitution. Although they had con- 
sented to let slavery alone in the States where it existed, and had 
even recognized its existence in a faint way in the Constitution, 
nearly all of the States intended to abolish at once the trade in 
slaves. England had done so, and was heartily ashamed of having 
had any ships engaged in it. All the States here, which had abol- 
ished slavery, hated this wicked commerce in human beings. Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and Delaware, wanted to get rid of it as much as 
Massachusetts. But South Carolina and Georgia held out. " If we 
cannot import slaves as fast as we want them under this new gov- 
ernment, we will stay out of it," said they. " We do not much 
desire a general government. We believe in ' state rights.' But 
if you want us to come into your new Union, let our slave-trade 
alone." Well, they talked it over and over, and the end was, we 
bargained with them to abolish the slave-trade in 1808, twenty 
years after this nation was formed. And all those years the republic 
founded on the principles of freedom, with liberty for a watchword, 
had to endure the scoffs and jeers of European nations, at keeping 
up a trade that was abhorred by all civilized countries. 

I cannot tell you, because it would take too long, how, step by 
step, this slave-power made itself the chief power ; how it controlled 
people's consciences, and made itself a stronghold, which hardly any- 
body dared attack ; how the South, at first ashamed of it, began 
to defend it and say it was good for humanity and the nation ; how 
ministers preached in favor of holding men in bondage, and went to 
the grand old Bible, and twisted its utterances into apologies for 
slavery. All the time growing stronger, the slave-power elected 
the majority to Congress ; it elected the presidents, and it added 
year by year new States to^its great area of slave labor. 



408 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

When Mr. Jefferson bought Louisiana of France, it contained 
ah"eady 40,000 slaves, and furnished so inuch more slave territory. 
AVhen, in 1820, Missouri, ready to be made into a State, asked to 
come inside the Union, she could not come in except as a slave State. 
But by this time a few strong men were aroused to the danger. 
They saw that one might as well live under a despot of Asia, the 
heads of whose subjects fall at his nod, as under the rule of a power 
so despotic as this slave power. So they argued, and protested, and 
reasoned, on the floor of Congress, till the " Missouri Compromise " 
was passed. That compromise said, " Let Missouri come in as a 
slave State, and hereafter, no State west of her borders and north 
of the line of 36° 30' north latitude, shall have slavery. 

You will wonder, perhaps, how the Southern States, which I have 
told you were more sparsely settled than the North, could have so 
often outvoted the States without slaves. I forgot to tell you that 
the slave-holders, in the time of the framing of the Constitution, had 
devised a shrewd way to greaten their votes. They gained the right 
to count three votes for eyery five slaves they held ; so that a man 
with one hundred slaves could count as many votes as a New Eng- 
land village with sixty freemen ; and a district largely peopled by 
slaves sent as many representatives to Congress as an intelligent 
community of Northern citizens. In this way a very few Southern 
men, of large property, held all power in their liands, and always 
elected some one to serve them in Congress. These slaves, whom 
they now called " chattels," and claimed to be property, as much as 
the barrels and bales in the warehouse of a New York merchant, 
they used to vote with. But what if the New York merchant had 
claimed to vote with barrels and bales ? How then ? 

So the country went on. The North never liked slavery. The 
South, always inclined to " state rights," you remember, grew more 
and more in favor of state rights. The North, always Federalists, 
believed more and more in union, and made all kinds of sacri- 
fices to keep the South amiable and contented in union. When 
South Carolina tried to secede in Jackson's time, the North glori- 
fied Jackson for holding together the bond which had knit the 
thirteen States into one. " The tariff was only a pretext," said 
Jackson, speaking of South Carolina's attempt to go out of the 
Union. " The next will be Slavery, or the Negro question." 
Long-headed " Old Hickory " saw deeper than most men of his 
day. 



EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 409 

t 

Next the nation, or rather the South, made the Mexican War to 
annex Texas, and that gave more slave territory, and more votes in 
Congress for that part of the nation. The North tried to prevent 
this war, but it came in spite of its efforts. Then Mexico tried to 
put a clause in her treaty of peace, providing that as the lands she 
yielded the United States had been previously free, they should not 
be made slave States. The blood of the great slave- dragon was up 
at this ; fire blew from his nostrils. One of its emissaries answered 
Mexico's mild appeal for freedom thus : "If you offered the territory 
ten times increased in value, covered a foot thick with gold., on the 
condition of leaving out slavery, I would not entertain the idea." 
So dear had slavery become to its worshipers ! 

California was a part of the territory thus alluded to. They 
would not take it from Mexico " covered a foot deep with gold," if 
they had to leave slavery out ! How do you think they felt when 
the Americans in California came together, made a government, 
voted that they would not have slavery, and asked to come iwfree ? 
There was another battle in Congress, the hottest yet. The South 
threatened again to leave the Union. Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster worked harder than they had worked in the days of the 
Nullifiers, to make the South hear reason and finally Henry Clay — 
who was a great man for devising " compromise bills," or bills 
which generally gave a good deal to slavery, and a little to freedom, 
that the two opposites could be coaxed to running along smoothly 
together, side by side for a while longer — came in with a new com- 
promise remedy, and our glorious Union was saved again. 

In the mean time was the South really any better off for slavery ? 

Let us look and see. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 



Extravagance of the Tobacco Planter. — Poor Whites. — Black House-servants. — Cotton 
Plantations. — Three Classes in the South. 

In that tour that Ave made through the American colonies just 
before the Revolutionary War, I hinted to you that the rich tobacco 
planter of Virginia was spending his money too fast. He was 
bringing over his luxuries from Europe, sending his sons abroad to 



410 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

be educated, driving about in his big four-wheeled yellow coach, with 
four horses, or riding on horseback, hunting, fishing, visiting his dis- 
tant neighbors, while every year his negroes put another crop of to- 
bacco into the rich land, gathered the harvest, packed it in hogsheads, 
and loaded it in ships for the foreign markets. But it is a fact in 
farming, which even you and I are farmers enough to understand, 
that you cannot plant the same crop year after year on the same 
soil, without "making the land poorer and poorer. It is like alwavs 
taking something out of a vessel, and putting nothing in. At last 
the vessel must get empty. Just so empty had Virginia soil grown 
with slave-labor, for this last hundred years. 

Another misfortune had been wrought by leaving the work to be 
done by the Africans. It had made labor disreputable in Virginia, 
and all over the South. Now, ever since God said to Adam, " Thou 
shalt earn thy bread by the sweat of thy brow," whenever a man 
has tried to escape from the divine command, and has made up his 
mind to live in absolute idleness, it has generally made a very mis- 
erable human being of him. In the South, there were a large class 
of white people, not rich enough to live decently without work, yet 
disdaining work, because it placed them on the level with negroes, 
or as they pronounced it, " niggahs." So they lived a wretched, 
thriftless existence, the most abject and hopeless looking class of 
people the sun ever shone upon in a civilized land. They were 
called "poor whites," or "mean whites." The rich whites looked 
down on them ; the negroes with wealthy owners despised them ; 
they were ignorant to a degree almost incredible in a free country 
like ours ; and in a word, they were a class which never could have 
existed in a community where honest labor was respected as it ought 
to be. In Georgia, a class of these " poor whites " were called 
" clay-eaters," because — probably to appease the pangs of hunger 
which gnawed their stomachs — they had contracted the habit of 
eating a kind of yellow earth. . This clay distended their abdomens 
and turned them ghastly yellow in complexion, making them look 
like ghosts of the unburied dead. By the superior race which ruled 
them, and accepted their votes for office, these poor whites of the 
South were looked upon with undisguised contempt. 

The Southern slave, originally imported from the torrid clime of 
Africa, was not by nature or habit a vigorous or thrifty laborer. 
When a human being works year after year without any hope of 
being paid for his labor, it will not add to his industry. The black 



EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 



411 



slave did not love work, and it often had to be coaxed out of him 
by the lash. The plantation he worked was not like the farms of 
the North, with barns, fences, and fields in trim condition, the 
bars up to keep the cattle out, the crops gathered in season, and 
everything speaking thrift and neatness. Instead, the whole land 
showed signs of universal neglect and decay. The planter's house, 
filled with "house-slaves," was very unlike the " Yankee" farm- 
house, where everything was in perfect order. I have known a 
Virginia house with ten or fifteen droning servants, where not half 
the amount of work was done that was accomplished in a Yankee 
kitchen with only the skillful housewife and her daughters to keep 
the domestic wheels running smoothly. Every year the Virginia 
dwelling fell more and more into disrepair, the fences loose, gates 
off the hinges, a dreadful clutter on the broad hospitable porch, 
windows that shook in the breezes, shutters that would not fasten, 
Avorn-out furniture, bad domestic management, uncleanness, — these 
were what marked many of the fair plantations of Virginia, 

By the time slavery had become an institution over two hundred 
years old, Virginia could no longer depend on the tobacco product of 
her worn-ovit lands. She raised tobacco and some other commodities. 




Picking Cotton. 



but she depended principally on her crop of slaves. She raised 
negroes for South Carolina and Georgia, now great cotton-raising 
States. The cotton crop of Eliza Lucas, planted in 1740, had be- 
come a great harvest, whitening the fields of Carolina, and loading 
myriad ships with its produce. Between the rows of the cotton 
plant, picking the snowy flakes from bursting pods, black men and 



412 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



women filled basket after basket, filling also the pockets of their 
owners with their unpaid labor. Still farther south, the great 
swampy plains, planted with rice and sugar-cane, swarmed with 
black labor, furnished by the slave markets of Virginia. 

This is the South of 1850 hastily glanced at. Keep in mind its 
three classes. First, the slave-holder, sometimes rich, but often in 
debt and embarrassed by improvident living and bad management ; 




Sugar-cane. 

autocratic, and overbearing with inferiors ; courteous and generous 
with his equals ; very swift to quarrel, and apt to believe a differ- 
ence of opinion between gentlemen best settled b}' the duel ; rash, 
haughty, gallant to ladies, ready to empty his purse for his friend ; 
— such was the type of a Southern gentleman of the time. If I 
add, that he hated all "Yankees " — as he called every one born in 
the North, especially those of New England, — you would have a 
still more complete idea of the man. 

Next, the unpaid, black laborers ; often devoted to their masters, 
on whose lands they had been born; often also brooding over a 
vague idea of freedom, of which they had heard as something uni- 
versal in the far off North ; a people with much that was loyal, 
patient, and poetical in their natures, mixed with much ignorance 
and native stupidity. 

Last, and lowest of all, the ignorant, idle, demoralized " poor 
whites." These classes were the elements which made the slave 
States. 



A NEW TARTY. 413 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A NEW PARTY. 

The First Abolitionist. — A Mob in Boston. — Shooting of Lovejoy. — The Cradle of Liberty. — 
A Quaker Poet. — Arguments on both Sides. — Gunpowder and Cold Steel. 

In the mean time, for twenty-five years dating back from the year 
1850, there had been a new party growing up in the North. They 
were known as " Abolitionists," and considering their size and num- 
bers they made a good deal of noise. One of the first of these Aboli- 
tionists was Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker in Pennsylvania. How it 
ever occurred to him that it was a bad thing to raise human beings 
for market, sell them like oxen, put them to work, and pocket their 
wages, I do not know. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Patrick 
Henry, had thought so in their day, but they had been dead a long- 
time, and people generally had ceased to share their views on that 
subject. So Benjamin Lundy has the merit of being an original 
discoverer. He made himself a good deal of trouble by saying what 
he thouglit, and at length he went to Boston and met there a young 
man named William Lloyd Garrison, a printer by trade, who held 
exactly the same ideas. You could hardly believe how much trouble 
these two men managed to make. Young Garrison went to work and 
published a paper called the "Liberator," in which he said plainly 
that he thought slavery was wrong! 

Now of course this was not a proper thing to do. It set a good 
many people to thinking, who decided tluit they also thought slavery 
was wrong. It made the slave-holders uncomfortable, because they 
feared these abolitionist people might get South and tell their slaves 
that freedom was a good thing. The slaves might believe it, being 
very ignorant and stupid, and might try to get their freedom by any 
means. One of the mottoes of the American revolutionists had been, 
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Suppose some Aboli- 
tionist should teach the slaves that their masters were " tyrants," 
why, there might be an insurrection, and the masters might be 
murdered in their beds. Such a thing had happened in the island of 
Hayti, where the slaves had thrown off their yoke and made them- 
selves a republic, after a fierce and bloody war against their masters. 
The name of " Abolitionist" made the slave-holder both angry and 
fearful. And with just cause. They were his very dangerous ene- 
mies. Garrison would have been killed like a rattlesnake in the 



414 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

South if he had gone there, and they offered five thousand dollars for 
his head in one of the States of this Union. In Boston, which was 
really the safest place in this country for him, he did not fare very 
well. In 1835, soon after Jackson had had his quarrel with the 
South Carolina Nullifiers, the good citizens of Boston intimated to 
Mr. Garrison that he must not abuse slavery. He insisted that he had 
a right to speak his mind, and he would speak it. They put him in 
prison, fined him, and at length, one day in October, they dragged 
him through Boston streets with a rope round his body, till the 
mayor got him and put him in jail for safet}^ from the mob. Any 
conservative and prudent person would suppose this would have 
cured him. On the contrary, as soon as he got out of jail, he went 
to editing that paper of his, with this flaming motto: ^'- 1 am in 
earnest. I will 7iot equivocate, I will 7iot excuse. I will not retreat 
a single inch, and I will he heard. Everybody knew he was a fanatic, 
but the trouble with fanatics is, they make converts. St. Paul did 
that, and Wycliff and Martin Luther, and they were all called fanat- 
ics in their day. It was so with Garrison. Men and women gath- 
ered about him, supported his views, advanced money, formed an 
" an tislavery society," and held meetings. Many of their views were 
bitter and extreme. Sometimes, when the western j)rairie is in 
flames, we fight the fire with fire, till the two conflagrations meet, and 
wrestle with each other and die out. So we often have to fight fire 
with fire in great social reforms. The early Abolitionists denounced 
the Constitution because they declared it upheld slavery. They de- 
nounced churches because the churches upheld slavery. Tliey 
denounced everything but absolute and immediate freedom to all 
enslaved men and Moraen. 

Well, these ranks began to swell. Out in Illinois a man named 
Lovejoy, a minister, a quiet-spoken, moderate sort of man, who did 
not go so far in denouncing everything as Garrison did, began to 
edit a paper and speak against slavery. He was warned it would 
not do to say these sort of things, and still he kept on. Then the 
mob broke up his presses and destroyed his printing-office. He got 
another office, printed another paper, and had the audacity to repeat 
again that he was convinced of the sin of slavery. Again the mob 
surrounded his office, and when engaged in defense of the building he 
was shot by a man in ambush. He fell with five bullets in his body, 
and was carried home a corpse to his wife and babies. 

The Abolitionists, growing stronger and stronger, held a meeting 



A NEW PARTY. 415 

in Faneuil Hall, the old " Cradle of Liberty " in Boston, to remon- 
strate against Lovejoy's murder. In that meeting was a young 
Boston lawyer, handsome, rich, the best blood of Massachusetts in 
his veins, and the prospect of a brilliant career before him, if he was 
careful and prudent. He was gifted with a wonderful voice, — the 
voice of the orator. He could often move even his enemies to tears 
or laughter. On this occasion he rose to address this meeting, and 
turning his back on the political and social honors which might 
easily have been his, he allied himself for life with this disreputable 
cause of abolitionism, going hand in glove with a little company of 
poor, struggling, despised, persecuted men and women. His name 
was Wendell Phillips, and from that time he ranked with Garrison 
as one of the leaders of his party. 

Just about this time another man joined the antislavery cause. 
He was a Quaker by birth, named John G. Whittier. Nature had 
not given him power of speech, but she gave him power to stir men's 
hearts with such poetry as can only be written by a man who feels 
other men's joys and sorrows as his own. If he could have let alone 
the subject of slavery, he might have made money by his poems, 
and been- feted and flattered in the land. But he preferred to take 
up the cause of the slaves, and for thirty years the sweetest singer 
of America lived und'er a cloud of contempt, neglect, and obloquy, 
because his pen had chosen so unpopular a theme. Thus the anti- 
slnvery cause gained a leader, an orator, and a poet. Given three 
such members, any cause must make itself heard. 

Most people found it impossible to understand what the Abolition- 
ists meant by their conduct. Many concluded it was sheer obstinacy 
and wrong-headedness that made them behave so. 

" Why don't you let the slaves alone," said they. " Don't they 
have enough to eat, and good clothes to wear ? Are they not well 
treated ? See how they sing and dance, down on the cotton-planta- 
tions. They are a good deal better off than they were in Africa. 
They love their masters too. Why, they would n't run away if they 
could." 

Others said, " The slaves are no better than monkeys. They are 
only fit for slaves. Even if they do get beaten Avith the lash now 
and then, it is necessary to make them work. The white is the 
superior race." 

Others said, — these were mostly Northern men, — "I think very 
likely slavery is not right. It don't seem the right sort of thing 

27 



416 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

to sell men and women. But it is none of our doing. Slavery 
exists, and we can't help it. We shall make a terrible revolution 
in the South if we make a fuss about it. Besides, I don't really see 
how they could raise cotton, rice, and sugar without the negro. At 
any rate the North must mind its own affairs, and let slavery settle 
itself where it belongs." 

The Abolitionists, who always had arguments thicker than black- 
berries, met the speakers with an answer at every point. When 
you told them the slaves did not want freedom, they showed how 
all along on the borders of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere, over 
the line • dividing slave from free States, year after year the slaves 
were running away in greater and increasing numbers. They 
showed the backs of these fugitives, women as well as men, ridged 
and scarred with the lash. They rehearsed the stories of these men 
and women ; how they had been hunted in their flight by blood- 
hounds, and had escaped only by hiding in swamps, and lying hid 
to the neck in rivers to elude the keen scent of the dogs ; how 
mothers had seen their babies sold away from their breasts as we 
sell calves and foals ! How husbands and wives had no certainty 
that their marriage-vows might not be at any time severed by the 
auction-block. They declared that under all apparent content was 
a terrible discontent that in a race of more blood-thirsty nature 
than these peaceable Africans would be deadly in its outbreak. 
All this the Abolitionists said, and more. They said that year by 
year the black in these African faces had grown paler and paler. 
That there was already too much of the blood of the white race in 
the faces of these bond-servants to make good " chattels " of them. 
They showed women in the South, fair-haired and blue-eyed, like 
their own wives and daughters, bearing the brand of ownership. 
They cnt from Southern papers such advertisements as these, and 
read them in their meetings : — 

" Five hundred dollars reward. Ran away on the 4th of July, a 
slave girl, named Rosa. Has straight brown hair, and blue eyes. 
Limps a little from a wound in the foot, and has a scar on the left 
shoulder. She has a good address and will probably try to pass 
herself off as a lady. Any one giving information of her to her 
master, John Smith, will receive the above reward." 

With all these weapons, the Abohtionists, or antislavery party, 
did infinite mischief to the slavery party, and they finally became a 
word of terror and hatred in the South. One of them had httle 



FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 



417 



chance of life or safety there. " The only way to meet them," said 
an able Virginian, alluding to the Abolitionists, " is with gunpowder 
and cold steel." There was truth in that. Argument was not the 
thing to meet them with. ^ 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

The President from New Hampshire. — Escape of Fugitive Slaves. — Story of Margaret Gar- 
ner. — The Missouri Compromise. — Beating of Charles Sumner. — " Indignation " Meet- 
ings. — The Awkward Lawyer, and the Little Giant. 

I HAVE befoi-e told you that Fillmore's successor was Franklin 
Pierce of New Hampshire, 
and that he was the first 
Northern man who had 
been elected to the presi- 
dency in many years. As 
I have explained to you in 
my chapter on slavery, that 
the slave-power, whose head- 
quarters naturally were in 
the South, was the strong- 
est power in the nation, you 
will want to know why a 
man from the extreme 
North should all at once 
be elected to the highest 
office in the land. Under- 
stand, then, that there was 
a party in the North who 
believed so strongly in 
yielding to all the demands 
of the slave-holding party, that they were called " Northern men 
with Southern principles." Franklin Pierce was one of these men. 
Pie was more averse to the agitation about slavery than even the 
Southerners themselves, and had as little sympathy with Abolition- 
ists as the slave-holders. 

You remember I told you that when the dispute came up about 




y^^2^Ce) 



418 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

admitting California, Henry Clay presented a compromise, grant- 
ing some privileges to the North, and others to the South, so that 
their mutual differences could be smoothed over, and the wheels of 
government could go on again. One qf the new privileges granted 
the South, was the right to pursue their fugitive slaves to the North 
and bring them back. The slave-owners claimed that this right 
belonged to them under one of the acts of the Constitution, although 
it had never been enforced, and a great many escaped slaves were 
living in towns and cities in the North in unmolested possession of 
freedom. Hither the masters now proposed to go, find their fugi- 
tives, and return them to slavery. Many black people who had 
been living thus for years in freedom, were sought out and returned 
to the South. Some mothers were taken back, with large families 
of children born to them in the North, because, according to the laAV, 
the child of a slave-mother is born a slave. 

This '' Fugitive Slave Law " was not liked by the North. One 
offensive part of it was, that any Northern citizen might be called in 
to help the officers of the law seize and arrest a fugitive slave, and 
it was his duty under the law to do it. Many people, not opposed 
to slavery before, resented this, and declared they would not do it. 
They cried in indignation to the South, " Is th}^ servant a dog that 
he should do this thing ? " Others, excellent men, argued against 
this feeling, which they said was the outgrowth of wicked aboli- 
tionism, and showed how the *•' Fugitive Slave Law " was a law of the 
land, and it was our plain duty to obey it. One worthy clergyman 
said, that if his own mother was a slave, and dared to run away 
North, and be free, he would himself help send her back to her mas- 
ter. The Abolitionists talked in return of a " Higher Law " than 
the " Fugitive Slave Law," which they said was the law of God, 
giving human beings the right to '' life and liberty ; " and thus in 
Pierce's time the dispute waxed hotter and hotter. 

Once the officers came to Boston, now quite a hot-bed of anti- 
slavery feeling, to take back a slave named Anthony Burns, who 
had escaped there. The people showed so much rebellion on the 
subject, that it was feared they would take Burns away from the 
officers, and they had to put chains all around Boston court-house to 
guard it from the mob. They got the slave back, however, and the 
majesty of the law was vindicated. Sometimes, however, the slaves 
took the law into their own hands. Let me tell you the story of 
Margaret Garner, and the way she resisted the Fugitive Slave Law. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 419 

Margaret was a slave. Not a very black slave, but with a dusky 
yellow skin like those we call mulattoes. She had two children, a 
boy and girl. The little girl was white, as fair, perhaps, as you or 
I. From some cause or other, Margaret Garner did not like to 
stay in slavery, and ran away with her two children and two other 
slaves. They all hid in the house of a free negro, but were soon 
tracked to their hiding-place by Margaret's master and a force of 
men he had brought with him. The door .was barred, but the 
officers battered it down and got in. When they entered, there 
stood Margaret Garner with a bloody knife in her hand between the 
bodies of her two children. She had cut their throats with her <nvn 
hand, and said she would rather have them dead than taken back to 
slavery. The little girl was already quite dead, but the boy was 
only wounded and afterwards got well. Margaret loved her dead 
baby, called her " Birdie," and wept when she told how pretty she 
was. But so far as I can learn she never was sorry that she killed 
her. They carried the mother and her wounded boy back to her 
master, and she was never heard of any more. 

Now you can understand, perhaps, why some people did not like 
the Fugitive Slave Law, and its demand on all loyal citizens to help 
enforce it, and how the feeling grew stronger and stronger in Mr. 
Pierce's administration, when all these things were happening. 

But one thing the North always rested on in great content. It 
was the "compromise" which had been made in 1820, when Mis- 
souri was made a State. That solemnly promised that no slavery 
should come west of Missouri, and north of the line of 36° 30' after 
Missouri was admitted with slaves. The North regarded this " Mis- 
souri Compromise " as their very ark of safety against slavery. 
They prized it as men prize the charter of their liberties. Men 
who disliked Abolitionists as they disliked troublesome insects, 
would have resented any doubt that this compromise was firm and 
eternal, as much as even Garrison or Wendell Phillips, the chiefs 
of abolitionism. 

Fancy the excitment, then, in 1854, when a senator from Illinois, 
named Stephen A. Douglas, arose in the Congress of the United 
States and proposed to take back the Missouri Compromise and let 
slavery into the great lands of Kansas and Nebraska, which lay just 
west of Missouri, and so were promised fairly to freedom by the 
pledge of 1820. It was a bomb-shell dropped in the cities of the 
North. The telegraph wires flashed it over the land, and the 



420 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

people gathered to talk over the news Avith faces like those we wore 
in days of war. It was whispered that now slavery was to be 
forced on ns everywhere, even into the heart of Massachusetts ; and 
then the story was told that one man, a senator of Georgia, had 
said he would yet live to " call the roll of his slaves from Bunker 
Hill." He would do it to spite the Boston Abolitionists. This 
new proposition of Stephen A. Douglas was called the " Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill." There was a hard and bitter fight on it in Con- 
gress. One senator from INIassachusetts, Cliarles Sumner, worked 
night and day to prevent the bill from passing. He made a speech 
called " The Crime against Kansas," which deeply offended the 
Southern senators. A representative from South Carolina, Preston 
Brooks, was so enraged at this speech that he came up behind Mr. 
Sumner while he sat writing at his desk in the senate chamber, and 
beat him over the head with a cane till the senator fell bleeding and 
senseless on the floor. The North held indignation meetings at this, 
and more and more people joined the growing antislavery party. 
The South honored Mr. Brooks, and presented him with another 
and a stronger cane, and said he served the dastardly Northerner 
right, who was a coward, and would not have fought a duel like a 
gentleman if Mr. Brooks had challenged him fairly. 

Well, of course the Kansas bill passed, in spite of all such men 
as Sumner could do or say. Slavery, it was decided, should go into 
the fertile plains of Kansas, if the majority of the people should 
vote to have it there when Kansas was ready to be a State. Doug- 
las had the pleasure of seeing his measure victorious ; but I must tell 
you in advance that he lived, I think, to be sorry that he ever made 
such a bill, and what lie could do to atone for it, he did heartily. 
Douglas had an opponent in his own State of Illinois. A tall, awk- 
ward looking lawyer, as tall and gaunt as Andrew Jackson was 
when he first came up to Congress, but with none of the courtly 
grace that Jackson could put on in society. This man was Abraham 
Lincoln. Remember his name, if you forget every other name in 
this book excepting that of George Washington. He arose against 
Douglas, the idol of the State that owned them both, and soon " the 
Little Giant " (so Douglas was called) began to realize that he had 
met his match, and more than his match, when right and justice 
were at issue between them. 



THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 421 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE I\ANSAS STRUGGLE. 

Settling Kansas. — Free-state Emigrants. — Bloodshed on the Plains. — Sharpe's Riftes. — A 
Modern Puritan. — The '"John Brown Tract." — Attack on Lawrence. — Old Ossawatomie. 
— Kansas a Free State. 

After the " Kansas-Nebraska Bill" was made a law, there was a 
regular scramble from slave and free States to see who should get 
first possession of this fair land, that lay smiling and peaceful, ready 
for the settler to come and open up her rich soil, and build new 
towns on the slopes of lier rolling prairies. Missouri was close at 
hand, and could at any time send whole towns full of settlers to peo- 
ple this new country. The free States, most in earnest to make 
Kansas also free and add no more slave territory to the Union, were 
very far distant. But they were now thoroughly aroused, and bent 
on their object. They held meetings in Boston, New York, and 
Philadelphia ; formed '•' emigrant aid societies," and subscribed 
money liberally to send people to Kansas, who would make it a free 
State. 

Very soon a long train of white-topped emigrant wagons were 
seen going westward. They carried the new settler with his wife 
and children. In the wagon were all their household goods. When 
they encamped at night on the western plains, the husband set up 
the cooking-stove, and the mother baked the bread and cooked the 
supper, while the baby, seated on the grass, crowed with delight at 
the sight of the great free dome of sk}^ over his head. From 1856 
till 1860, when Kansas was made a State, these long lines of emi- 
grant trains were seen almost as frequently on the western plains 
as tlie locomotive with its wavy line of smoke is now seen on its way 
thither. 

And now, for the first time, blood began to flow in the fight be- 
tween slavery and freedom. The emigrants from the East and 
North met the Missourian with bowie-knife and pistol, on this neu- 
tral ground, which both claimed. The man who believed in "free 
soil," named his antagonist "border-ruffian." The Missouri^in 
thought " Yankee " and " black abolitionist " as bad names as he 
could find for his opponent. Pretty soon revolvers went off, bowie- 
knives flashed from their sheaths, a man here and another elsewhere, 
had been killed in an affray. It is but just to say that the Missou- 



422 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

rian was much the best fighter, and much more ready with pistol 
and bowie-knife than his Yankee neighbor. The Yankees intended 
to come in force, stake out their farms, build a town of houses painted 
white with green blinds, with school-house and meeting-house in the 
midst, and when election-day came, go up solid to the polls and vote 
that Kansas was a free State. The Missourians, on whom the chief 
defense of slavery seemed to fall, were not so good at emigrating, 
and found it easier to go over the borders in gangs, and try to 
frighten the settlers away, than to move in their goods and chattels 
to settle there. They felt quite sure that these Yankees were white- 
livered cowards who would leave after a few revolver-shots, and go 
home again, or be silent about slaver3^ But when one or two free- 
state men had been killed, the Yankees sent word to the emigrant 
societies that they wanted something else in addition to the usual 
outfit. They wanted an excellent gun known as " Sharpens Rifle," 
to aid them in defending their rights to settle in Kansas. 

About this time a singular figure appeared on the plains of Kan- 
sas, which were now looked at with intense interest by the whole 
country as the battle-ground of a new revolution. This strange 
figure was the tall, erect form of an old man with stiff white hair 
and flowing beard. He might have stood as an artist's model for 
some prophet of old, and his severe life, austere in religion, his 
speech full of quaint Biblical allusions, matched his looks. His 
name was John Brown, a name we have often heard, and one 
likely to prove more and more famous. With him four stalwart 
sons came to Kansas to settle there. 

John Brown was much such a Puritan as Oliver Cromwell was. 
And one of the convictions that he held, as sacred as Cromwell held 
the dearest article in his creed, was this : that slavery was a sin, 
against which it was as right and just to wage warfare, as in any 
cause upon whose banners God's cross had been set. That when 
Joshua led the armies of Israel against the heathen Amorites, God 
was not more surely with him, than with the man who went to 
smite slavery with the edge of the sword. 

John Brown had good blood in his veins. His ancestors came 
over in the Mayflotver, the earliest ship of the Puritans, and his 
grandfather died in a battle of the Revolution. Poor and hard- 
worked, with a family of twenty children born to him, John Brown 
had grown poorer, and worked harder, on account of his devotion 
to one idea. 



THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 



423 



Years before he came to Kansas, Gerrit SniitL of New York, one 
of the Abolitionists who had wealth to aid the cause he believed in, 
and had aided it largely, offered to give a Large tract of land to those 
negroes who were free or had escaped to freedom, that they might 
come there and form a colony and turn the land into farms. This 




John Brown. 



tract was in northern New York, in the region of the Adirondacks. 
On hearing of this plan of Gerrit Smith, John Brown had moved 
with his family to this untilled forest, hoping that by his knowledge 
of farming he might aid the poor, ignorant, undisciplined negroes 
who wished to avail themselves of the land. From this region John 
Brown with his sons now came to help the struggle in Kansas. 
Such is an outline sketch of the man, whose soul is marching on 
through the future to a fairer and fairer immortality. 

In 1856 the struggle in Kansas had fairly begun. At first only 
a single man had been killed here and there by lawless bands of 



424 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



" border ruffians," who were constantly making incursions into 
Kansas, not to settle there, but to drive away free-state settlers. 
Whenever there was a territorial election, or any laws to be passed 
in the Territory, the Missourians came over in great force, out- voted 
the free-state men and after carrying the election by violence, went 




home again. ^ In the more extreme south a company of militia from 
South Carolina and Georgia was raised and sent to subdue Kansas 
to slavery. 

Then preparations were made on both sides for attack and defense. 
Lawrence, the chief town of the free-state settlers, was attacked, 
and its principal buildings burnt. Then four or five hundred men 
came to the village of Ossawatomie, where John Brown lived. The 
old hero had only about thirty men to oppose this force, but he 
managed them so skillfully that after a long defense of his position 
he led his men to a safe retreat with a loss of only five or six, leav- 
ing the Missourians in possession of the field with thirty-one killed 
and about twice that number wounded. One of the dead at Ossa- 
watomie was Frederick Brown, a son of the leader. 



THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 



425 



When Lawrence was besieged a second time by an army from 
Missouri, said to be one thousand strong, the citizens sent for 
" Ossawatomie Brown " (as he was now called) to defend them. 
He came, and with his little army, never more than thirty or forty 
in number, aided by the citizens, guarded the town so well that the 
Missourians concluded not to ffive battle. 




Lawrence, Kansas, in 1857. 



In the mean time the steady line of trains kept coming from the 
East, wagon-load after wagon-load of settlers, all ready to vote Kan- 
sas into the Union without slavery. Again and again the vote was 
polled, and when the free-state residents of Kansas had mustered 
in force, a great party would swoop over the border from Missouri, 
outnvimbering the legal voters, and force upon them the most ob- 
noxious laws. But this could not last always. Before the swelling 
tide of emigration all Missouri might soon oppose itself in vain. In 
1858 the free-state men were able to vote with 10,000 majority, 
that Kansas should be organized without slavery, and from that 
time resolutely voted down all attempts to make her anything but 
free. 



426 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



RAID INTO VIRGINIA. 



Presidential Contest of 1856. — An Exodus of Slaves. —The "Kennedy Farm." — Surprise of 
tlie Watchmen at Harper's Ferry. —The Arsenal taken. —John Brown Pikes. —Arrival 
of Soldiers. — Capture of John Brown. — His Trial, 
and Execution. — Scene on the Gallows. 



-John Brown's Speech. —Sentence 



While these Kansas troubles were growing more excitino-, a new 
president was elected. Franklin Pierce served the Southern interest 

faithfully for four years, 
as he was pledged to do, 
and in 1857 gave up 
his seat to James Bu- 
chanan of Pennsylvania, 
also elected by the Dem- 
ocratic party. There 
had been a hard politi- 
cal fight against him 
b}^ the other party, who 
now called themselves 
" Republicans," the old 
name which Thomas 
Jefferson had been 
proud to own. The 
Republicans had for a 
leader, John C. Fre- 
mont, the young ex- 
plorer of the Roclcy 
Mountains, and the bat- 
tle was fought for him 
with intense enthusiasm. 
The contest was decided in favor of the party which had ruled the 
country so many years, and in 1857 James Buchanan was made 
president in Washington. Of course he had little sympathy with 
free-state settlers in Kansas, and they fought out their fight there 
with no aid or encouragement from him. 

Meanwhile, John Brown, who found Kansas was now able to 
gain her freedom at the ballot-box, concluded to leave the Territory. 
Just before he left, a slave came secretly to beseech his good offices 




RAID INTO VIRGINIA. 427 

in aiding him to escape with his wife and children. He had just 
learned they were all to be sold in Texas, and the slaves dreaded 
being sold into the extreme south more than the punishment of the 
lash. It was a place from which there seemed no hope of any re- 
lease from bondage. 

Brown never heard any appeal from the slave without acting 
upon it. Just before he started for the East, he went over into 
Missouri to the plantation where the slave lived, and took away 
with him twelve slaves who were anxious to escape. The master 
of the slaves was killed in opposing the escape of his property. 
Brown marched the whole party to Canada, and left them there 
rejoicing in their freedom, and blessing their deliverer. But this 
deed covered his name with odium in the South, and he was de- 
nounced as the blackest of murderers and desperadoes. 

About the 1st of July, 1859, several months after John Brown 
arrived with his fugitives in Canada, a man and his two sons came 
to Virginia, and hired a farm near Harper's Ferry on the Potomac 
River. The man, who said he was a farmer, gave his name as 
Smith, had white hair and flowing beard. His sons were young 
men who looked as if they had been used to farm-work, and were 
bronzed by exposure to wind and weather. They went to work at 
once, very often receiving packages and boxes by the railroad, 
Avhich runs through Harper's Ferry, which they said contained their 
farmiuir tools, and the various utensils they needed in their labor. 

The town of Harper's Ferry near which the " Kennedy Farm," 
hired by " Smith "' and his two sons, is situated, is one of the most 
romantic in Viro;inia. It is built under the crest of the mountains 
through which the Potomac flows. Two long streets on the river's 
level form the main town, and from thence the houses straggle up 
the sides of the mountains overlooking the river. A large arniory 
for the manufacture of United States arms, furnishes employment 
for a band of workmen, and makes brisk sounds of labor in the 
otherwise quiet little place. The great arsenal building, stored 
with guns and munitions of war, stands in the heart of the town. 

On the night of the 16th of October, a little company of men 
appeared before the three astonished watchmen who guarded the 
arsenal gates, bound and took them prisoners, and entered the 
arsenal. The company was twenty-two in number, five black men 
and seventeen whites. Their leader was the long-bearded man Avho 
had hired the " Kennedy Farm " as Smith. He is no longer called 



428 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Smith, but " John Brown of Kansas." In his party are his two 
sons, Oliver and Watson. John Brown entered the armory, and 
prepared to fortify it, and make it his head-quarters, just as a gen- 
eral would choose head-quarters in time of war. They have in fact 
declared war, these twenty-two men, against the institution of 
slavery. They are here to begin the battle. 

It seems a mad attempt for this handful of men to think of fight- 
ing the whole State of Virginia ; behind that the whole slave-liolding 
league ; still behind these, the established law and order of a great 
nation. Yet there was some method in this madness. John Brown 
knew by gaining possession of the arsenal he should have plenty 
of arms at his disposal. His plan was to cut off all communication 
with the town, seize the wealthy citizens in the vicinity, and keep 
them as hostages to supply money and provisions. Already his 
comrades outside Harper's Ferr}^ were cutting down telegraph wires, 
and tearing up railroad tracks, to prevent intelligence of their at- 
tack spreading over the country. During the three months of their 
stay in Virginia, John Brown and his sons had been exploring the 
mountains in all that wild region, holding communication with 
slaves, and they expected now to be joined by a large band of blacks 
to whom they could furnish arms from the arsenal, and then retreat 
in force to the mountain fastnesses where Liberty could hold a siege, 
impregnable against her foes. At Collinsville, Connecticut, he had 
ordered a thousand instruments of war, known as " John Brown's 
pikes." These pikes were simply a kind of bowie-knife, a broad, 
pointed knife, sharp on both edges, fastened to a pole about six feet 
long. These were John Brown's own invention, and he probably 
intended to arm the slaves with them, who were unaccustomed to 
fire-arms. Some of the boxes consigned to him at Harper's Ferry, 
had contained these '' pikes." 

This was, as far as we can discover it, John Brown's plan and 
preparation for striking the death-blow to slavery. It was so far 
carried out, that shortly after daylight on the morning of October 
17th, over sixty prisoners were shut up in the armory, and John 
Brown's little army held the town. They arrested every citizen 
they met. When the astonished prisoners asked the meaning of 
their arrest, they were told, "It is to aid in the freedom of the 
slave." And on whose authority was this done ? " On the au- 
thority of Almighty God." 

If at any hour before noon on this eventful Monday of October, 



RAID INTO VIRGINIA. 429 

John Brown and his men h;iJ chosen to escape from Harper's Ferry, 
they could have gone away unmolested, and sought shelter in the 
mountains. Probably the leader constantly expected to see a force 
flocking to join him. But no such aid appeared. By noon, the first 
company of one hundred militia marched into the town, and John 
Brown's fate was sealed. 

His men outside the armory who were guarding different posts 
about the town, were at once killed by the troops. Before even- 
ing there were 1,500 soldiers in Harper's Ferry, and the whole 
country rang with news of the astonishing insurrection. By night, 
the party inside the armory numbered seven men, the sole surviv- 
ors of John Brown's army, only three of whom were unwounded. 
Shots from every side had poured into the arsenal, till night sus- 
pended for a season the attack. Through the night John Brown 
sat upon the floor between his two sons, one dead, the other mortally 
wounded and dying in slow agony, waiting for the day to break 
and put an end to the conflict. Next morning a ladder used as a 
battering-ram, broke down the arsenal door, the last defense be- 
tween Brown ami his assailants. The sixty prisoners inside hailed 
its fall as their signal of deliverance. When the army entered they 
confronted these formidable invaders ; the old man between the bodies 
of his two sons, another dead body a little distant, and three others 
with guns thrown down in token of surrender. Before John Brown 
could speak, a lieutenant had struck him over the head with his sabre, 
and a soldier speared him in the side with a bayonet after he had 
fallen. One of his men Avas also stabbed by the soldiers, and the 
two others, mingling in the crowd, were borne off unhurt, as prison- 
ers, the troop not recognizing them in the crowd as part of the in- 
surgents. Such was the beginning and end of " John Brown's raid 
into Virginia." Of the excitement which it caused all over the 
United States, and especially in Virginia, I can give you no idea. 
Never did so small a party of men raise such fears, or require so 
much military paraphernalia to suppress them. The rest of the 
story is briefly told. 

John Brown was tried by the State of Virginia for " murder, trea- 
son, and exciting insurrection among the slaves." He lay most of 
the time during his trial on a cot, from which his wounds did not 
permit him to rise, and lying there he heard the conclusive evidence 
against him. During the affray on Monday, several citizens of 
Harper's Ferry had been killed and wounded. This furnished the 



430 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

evidence of murder. Treason and insurrection were no less fully 
proved. There could be no doubt about the verdict. The pris- 
oner Brown, and Stevens, the companion who was tried with him, 
were found guilty, and sentenced to be hung by the neck till they 
were dead. On the 2d of December Brown was to suffer the penalty 
of his deeds. 

When he was asked why sentence of death should not be passed 
on him, John Brown made a brief speech. Here is one passage 
from it. 

" This court acknowledges, I suppose, the validity of the laws of 
God. I see a book kissed here, which I suppose to be the Bible, or 
at least, the New Testament. That teaches me that all things 
' whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so 
to them.' It teaches me further ' to remember tliose in bonds, as 
bound with them.' I endeavored to act upon these instructions. 
I believe that to have interfered as I have done in behalf of liis de- 
spised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed neces- 
sary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of 
justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, 
and with the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights 
are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit. 
So let it be done.'' . 

He spent the intervening time before the execution of his sentence, 
in writing and answering letters. He had many letters of sympathy, 
some even expressing admiration of his course. He left minute direc- 
tions for his wife and children to follow, and wrote a careful will dis- 
posing of his simple effects. He read the Bible much, but would re- 
ceive no Southern clergyman, because he declared no man could be a 
Christian who defended slavery, and he preferred to die unministered 
to rather than take the hand of any one in fellowship who could 
apologize for that which was to him the most monstrous of crimes. 

On the 2d day of December, he made ready to ride to the gal- 
lows. As he walked out of the door of his jail with the step of a 
conqueror rather than that of a felon, he saw near the entrance a 
slave woman with a little black child in her arms, who looked at 
him wonderingly. He stooped and kissed the baby, and went quietly 
on. In the cart, going to the gallows, with the undertaker beside 
him, the latter said, — 

'■- You are more clieorful than I am, Mr. Brown." 

" Why, yes," said the old man simply, " I ought to be." 



LINCOLN ELECTED PRESIDENT. 431 

Then he apologized for his calmness, as if he feared it looked like 
bravado, explaining that it had been characteristic with him from 
childhood not to feel fear of death. " I have suffered far more from 
bashfulness than from fear," he said. On the scaffold he Avas 
blindfolded and led upon the drop. For ten minutes he waited im- 
movable with the rope around his neck, while the military troops in 
attendance paraded gorgeously in the sun, till at length many voices 
cried "Shame! shame ! " at the spectacle of that patient figure up 
there waiting his death signal. Then the drop was let fall, the 
body struggled and writhed till all was over and the dangling figure 
ceased to give evidence of life. The majesty of the law was vindi- 
cated, and John Brown's body was dead. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

LINCOLN ELECTED PRESIDENT. 

Party Quarrels. — The Story of Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood. — Feeling of the South. — Threats 
to break up the Union. — Joy in South Carolina at Lincoln's Election. — What is Trea- 
son V — Difference between Northern and Southern Patriotism. 

Mr. Buchanan was president during this John Brown excite- 
ment, and in his administration other and still more exciting events 
were to follow. Already the country began to talk about the man 
who should be the next president, and never had the nation been 
divided into so many parties as in the fall of 1860, when the election 
was to take place. Before this time there had been two great parties, 
the " Democrats " and " Republicans." Now these were subdivided 
into four parties, each resolved on electing their candidate. The 
Democratic party had split in two. There were the '• Southern 
Democrats," who had at their head John C. Breckenridge of Ken- 
tucky. There were the " Northern " or " Douglas Democrats," 
with Stephen A. Douglas, the author of the famous " Kansas-Ne- 
braska Bill," as their leader. These two parties had quarreled be- 
cause Douglas held that Kansas, or any other Territory, had the right 
to vote that slavery should not exist within its boimdaries if the ma- 
jority of the people did not want it. The Southern party now de- 
clared that slavery ought to go into the Territories and be recognized 
as an institution of the United States. Hence their quarrel Avith the 
Northern members of their party. The third party was called the 
" Union and Constitutional party," or the " Bell-Everetts," from 

28 



432 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



their leaders, John Bell and Edward Everett, for president and vice- 
president. This party was very much troubled by the constant 
threats of Southern senators on the floor of Congress, that they were 
going out of the Union to make a new government of their own. 
The " Union party " drew up an expression of their opinion (or what 




Abraham Lincoln. 



political parties call a " platform "), in which they begged all the 
people to stand by the Union and the national laws. The fourth 
party was the Republican ; the same that had worked so hard for 
John C. Fremont four years before. This party had taken Abra- 
ham Lincoln for their leader. He was the fellow-statesman of 
Douglas in Illinois, and once before had had a contest with the 
*' Little Giant," with their own State as the battle-ground. 

Abraham Lincoln had had a severe struggle in life before he got 
far enough up above the crowd, so that people could see his homely, 
honest face above those of other men born in his own rank. He 
was the son of a Kentucky farmer, and in his youth had worked 
hard at the rudest kind of labor. He had hoed corn, driven oxen, 
helped to build the log-house which was the home of his family in 
Illinois, and had spent one wliole season in the woods splitting rails 



LlNC(n.N ELECTED PRESIDENT. 433 

for fences. From this, his opponents called him a " vulgar rail- 
splitter," an " ignorant boor, unfit for the society of gentlemen." 
But Abraham Lincoln had been early in the very best society. He 
was so poor that he could get only very few books in his boyhood and 
youth, but through the aid of his mother, who encouraged his love 
for readiug, he got three volumes early into his hands. These were 
the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, and ^sop's Fables. In their very 
excellent society he spent his leisure till he knew them by heart. 
To them, no doubt, he owed much of his ability to write clean, 
wholesome English, such as men write who have begun their educa- 
tion with a few good books. When Abraham Lincoln wrote a 
thing, you read what he meant. The meaning was not covered up 
under a heap of useless words. One thing was apparent in him 
from boyhood. This was his straightforward truthfulness and sin- 
cerity of purpose. No political experience" ever twisted him ; he 
ended life as he began it, an honest, sincere, trustworthy man. One 
of the great outcries against him by his opponents after he was 
elected was, " He is an uncouth, rough backwoodsman. He is 7io 
gentleman" It is true that he was very uncouth in face and 
figure ; never handsome to look at, although the soul of the man 
sometimes shone through the plain features in a way that trans- 
figured them, and his deep gray eyes were full of a great sadness, 
that seemed almost to prophesy his tragic fate. He had not the 
manners of a court, but he did deeds from the promptings of a 
simple, manly heart that a king might have been proud to own, and 
if he was not a true gentleman, God does not make any nowadays. 

This was Abraham Lincoln, who stood before the people in the 
year 1860 as one of the candidates for the presidency. 

As soon as he was announced as the choice of the party, the South 
were more furious than ever. And they declared through their 
senators in Congress, their newspapers, in their public meetings, in 
private meetings all over the South, that if the Republican party 
should elect their president, the " South would go out of the Union." 

Now it is very plain that if the Southern Democrats had not 
quarreled with their Northern friends and refused to vote with 
them, they might altogether have outvoted the Republicans. But 
it seems quite clear that the South wanted a pretext for "secession," 
and really hoped Lincoln might be elected so that she could go off 
by herself and form a " Southern Confederacy " of slave-holding 
States, where, as one of her best and ablest leaders said, " she could 



434 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

have slavery for the corner-stone." Many of her wealthy slave- 
holders wanted to reopen the trade in slaves so that they could get 
negroes cheaper than they could with the present restrictions on that 
kind of commerce, and one of the Georgia members complained in the 
convention which nominated Breckenridge, that he had to pay from 
one to two thousand dollars a head for negroes in Virginia, when he 
could go to Africa and buy better ones at fifty dollars apiece. 

So the South were prepared to welcome the election of Lincoln 
when it took place in November, 1861, and they did welcome it 
heartily. When the Republican party in the North was firing 
cannon, and ringing bells, and building bonfires over their first vic- 
tory in the nation, the people of Charleston in South Carolina were 
shaking hands in congratulation, and many hearty cheers went up 
at the news of Abraham Lincoln's election. 

Before Lincoln had been the president elect three months, and 
almost three months before he took the seat of government, seven 
States had passed resolutions to go out of the Union. South Caro- 
lina led the van, and Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Loui- 
siana, and Texas, all followed. 
Each State held a convention, 
declared that she no longer be- 
longed to the United States, and 
would not acknowledge its author- 
ity. Then these seven met to- 
gether and formed a " confeder- 
acy " of Southern States, called the 
" Confederate States of America," 
and on the 4th of February, 1861, 
elected Jefferson Davis of Mis- 
sissippi the president, and Alex- 
jefferson Davis. audcr Stephens of Georgia vice- 

president. Thus they proposed to sever, or cut in two, the nation 
previously known as the United States of America. 

Of course you understand that if the United States was a nation, 
the action of such men was treason, and they were rebels. There 
are forty counties in England. Suppose the twenty southern coun- 
ties should say all at once, " We are dissatisfied with the people of 
the northern counties, and are going to break off and make a nation 
by ourselves. We are perfectly willing to make a peaceable treaty 
with the other half of England, and we do not want to fight her, but 




LINCOLN ELECTED PRESIDENT. 435 

if she attempts to prevent our forming a new nation we shall fight 
her, tooth and nail, till one side is forced to yield." In such a case 
we should he sure there were traitors in England, and we should 
call their action treaHun against the English government. 

But the southern part of our country claimed that they were not 
traitors, because each State was '' sovereign and independent ; " that 
they had voluntarily come together and made a Union, and now were 
tired of it, wanted to go away, and had a perfect right to go. This 
was the view the politicians in the South had taken almost from the 
first. This was the- idea of John C. Calhoun. The time had come 
at last when it had to be tested whether the United States was a 
nation reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, or a band of petty states who 
could divide and subdivide at pleasure, till we had thirty or forty 
small republics, perhaps, on this continent. That was the question 
which had been brewing ever since the year 1787 when the Federal 
Constitution was adopted. 

The Northern people had no adequate idea how resolved the 
people of the South were in tiiis matter. Hardly any one among 
them believed that South Carolina, who led off in this act of seces- 
sion, really could be in earnest. The North believed in a nation. 
Even the larger part of the Northern Democrats, who were ready to 
yield up almost anything for the sake of peace, would have Sprung 
to the rescue of the American flag, if they had seen it about to be 
hauled down by any members of their own party. To the Northern 
man the Union meant everything dear to him as a patriot. 

On the other hand, the man of South Carolina from childhood 
had heard of his State and her glory ; he boasted of being a " South 
Carolinian " ; he loved the palmetto flag, the emblem of his State. 
The man of New England, New York, or the States of the North- 
west hardly knew if his State had a flag ; for him there was but one 
flag, which he reverenced abroad and at home — the stars and stripes. 
He did not say " I am an Illinoisian," or a " New Yorker," but 
declared proudly, " I am an American.'''' You see thus what diffi- 
culty these two classes of men had in understanding each other. 
The Northerner could not believe that the South would really 
break up the sacred Union ; the Southerner could not believe that 
the Union was anything which the North would fight about. Thus 
the two opposing parts of the nation stood when the 4th of March, 
1861, drew near. 



436 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES. 

Inauguration Speech of Lincoln. — Coercion. — National Property. — Forts in Charleston Har- 
bor. — Guns opened on Fort Sumter. — The Bombardment. — The Flag hauled down. — 
Intense Excitement. — Patriotism in the North, — Patriotism in the South. 

Inauguration day came, and Lincoln, standing before the as- 
sembled crowd in Washington, read his inaugural address. He had 
had a grand tour from his simple home in Springfield, Illinois, all 
the way to Philadelphia, met everywhere by the hearty greetings of 
a large party of the people. When he reached Philadelphia and 
went through the customary ceremonies of welcome there, he was 
informed that he must not go through Baltimore openly. There 
was a plot discovered by some skillful detectives, to murder him as 
he passed through that city. Then for the first time the new presi- 
dent was made to feel he was nearing an enemy's land. He refused 
to believe in this plot at first, but finally yielded and went through 
Baltimore by night and secretly, in order to frustrate these designs 
upon his life. 

Mr. Lincoln's address was like himself, honest and manly. He 
told the country that the United States was a government, and that 
no State could by its own act take herself out of the Union. That 
to the best of his ability he should faithfully execute the laws of 
the Union. He assured the Southern people that he had no design 
or wish to violate any of their lawful rights, even those which re- 
lated to slavery, and he and the nation intended to respect all 
their rights. But he assured them that he must, as the servant 
of this nation, hold, occupy, and possess all the property belong- 
ing to the United States, whether it was situated in the North or 
the South. 

This last declaration w-as taken up as the signal of war upon the 
South, and all her people, and her friends in the North, talked about 
the wickedness of " coercion,'' or forcing the South to stay in the 
Union at the cost of bloodshed. The truth was, the United States 
owned a line of forts extending all along the Atlantic coast and 
Gulf of Mexico. There were forts at the entrance of all the large 
harbors, and the mouths of all important rivers, from Virginia to 
Louisiana, or the Mississippi. These forts were built, owned, 



BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES. 487 

manned, and fnrnished by the United States, They did not belong 
to South Carolina or Florida, any more than to Michigan or Wis- 
consin. These forts, many of them, had been seized, and were now 
held by the rebels against the United States government. In Texas 
the largest part of the United States arnjy were stationed near the 
Mexican border under command of General Twiggs, who you will 
remember had been in the Mexican War. This army belonged to 
the United States ; not to Texas, or Georgia, or Massachusetts, or 
New York. Its officers had been educated at West Point, on the 
Hudson, at the expense of the country. Its men were clothed and 
fed by the United States ; its officers drew their pay from the Union ; 
they were its property. Yet, news had already come that Gen- 
eral Twiggs had given this army up into the hands of " secession- 
ists "in Texas. Again, duringthe last days of Mr. Buchanan's pres- 
idency, the secretary of war, who had control of guns and cannon 
and munitions of war belonging to the nation, had been using his 
power to send arms wherever he chose. So this secretary, who was 
an ardent secessionist, had sent all the munitions South that he 
could, without arousing suspicion. From one United States arsenal 
in Massachusetts alone, he had thus sent away over 100,000 guns. 
Add to these, that in the seven States now already claiming to be a 
" confederacy," the secessionists were seizing the arsenals and manu- 
factories that were national property, the national mints, containing 
United States money, and you see what Mr. Lincoln meant by saying 
he considered it his duty to hold the property of the United States, 
and wh}^ it brought down on him more bitter hatred and darker 
threatenings than he had yet heard. 

In the harbor of Charleston were several forts. One of these was 
Fort Moultrie, named for the gallant colonel who had held it in the 
first years of the Revolution. Another was Fort Sumter, also of 
Revolutionary fame. When South Carolina began her secession 
fury, after Lincoln's election. Major Robert Anderson was com- 
manding the forts in the harbor. He was stationed with a little 
garrison at Moultrie. Fort Sumter was the better and larger fort, 
and six days after South Carolina had declared herself out of the 
Union, Major Anderson took liis soldiers, provisions, guns, and all 
that could be moved, over to Sumter, and occupied it. The South ' 
Carolinians talked loudly about this, and claimed that Mr. Buchanan 
had promised not to reinforce the forts, or put any more soldiers in 
the harbor. On the other hand. Major Anderson asked repeatedly 



438 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



for provisions and men, if the government wanted to keep their forts. 
One attempt had been made to send a ship to his aid, but she had 
been fired upon in Charleston harbor and retreated, and was finally 
captured by the rebels, and held by them as their property. 

Now Major Anderson sent word to Lincoln that he could not hold 
the fort unless the government came to his succor. Lincoln answered 
that the fort should be provisioned. The chiefs of the confederates 
in Charleston heard this, and on the 12th of April they informed 
Anderson that the fort must at once be surrendered, or it would be 
bombarded. 

Anderson refused to surrender. He knew a long defense would 
be hopeless, but he resolved not to haul down his country's flag with- 
out a struggle. He had eighty men in the garrison, and a very small 




Sand Bag Battery at Fort Moultrie. 



supply of food, and while provisions lasted he thought he could 
make a defense. On Friday, the twelfth day of April, 1861, the 
guns from Charleston opened their fire on the walls of Fort Sum- 
ter. The rebels had taken possession of Fort Moultrie, and two 
other fortified points in the harbor, and they had also two floating 
batteries from which guns were leveled. So, from five points at 
once, balls rained on the devoted fort. 

Major Anderson kept silent for a time and did not i-eturn the fire. 
At last he began to use his guns, but with little effect on his ene- 
mies. All his powers were necessarily devoted to defense. There 
were wooden barracks inside the fort which soon took fire from the 
bombs thrown by the rebels. These were twice saved — the flames 




BE(iINNING OF HOSTILITIES. 439 

extinguished. But on the second day of the siege, the flames took 
such hold of them that they could not be stopped, and they were all 
consumed. With flames inside, and the pelting cannon balls batter- 
ing away at tlieir walls outside, the little garrison had a hot day. 
The smoke was blinding, the air too hot and thick to breathe. The 
men worked with wet cloths over their 
mouths- and noses. The fort was a scene 
of ruin, such as one sees in a city where 
a great fire sweeps over its squares and 
consumes them. It was j)lain Fort 
Sumter could not hold out much longer. 

All this time several ships sent to 
reinforce Major Anderson waited out- 
side the harbor, out of range of the 
firing, the issue of the siege. They 
could only draw near the fort through 
the heavy fire, with great loss of life, ^°^^'^ Anderson. 

and their commander thought it prudent not to attempt a nearer 
approach. Major Anderson could see these vessels, with our flag 
flying cheeringly from the mast-head, all the time the bombard- 
ment was going on. So far he had kept his flag gallantly flying 
in answer. Although it had once been shot from the staff, it was 
nailed up again under the enemy's fire. 

But Sumter's gallant defense was hopeless. Major Anderson 
knew that from the first. At noon, on the 13th, a boat with one 
of the rebel leaders on board, set off from Charleston to the fort, 
and asked to see Major Anderson. He gave his name as General 
Wigfall of Texas, and said he came from General Beauregard, who 
commanded the Southern army in South Carolina, and wished to 
stop the firing. On his representations Major Anderson permitted 
a white flag to be displayed. Another party, this time really sent 
by Beauregard, came over from Fort Moultrie in a boat to see what 
Anderson meant to do. From these last comers Major Anderson 
found that Wigfall had acted without orders, without the knowledge 
even of General Beauregard. But after some discussion it was 
agreed that on the next day, Sunday, the 14th of April, Major 
Anderson should evacuate the fort with all his men and all their 
movable property, should come out with arms and flying colors, and 
salute his flags with fifty guns before it was pulled down. This 
was done, and on that day Anderson and his men took the vessels 



440 



SrOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



that had been sent to reinforce them, and sailed North, where the 
gallant major received all the honors which his countrj'men could 
lavish on him in token of their love and 
esteem. As soon as he had left, the rebel 
General Beauregard went over to the bat- 



tered and smoking fort, and pulling down 
the old flag, ran up the palmetto flag of the 
little State of South Carolina in her place. 

This is the bombardment of Sumter, 
simply and briefly told. But I can hardly 
dare trust myself to tell you how the news 
that the fort had been fired on, our flag 
riddled with cannon balls and hauled down from its proud place 
aloft, was received by the people of the North. In all the siege not 
a drop of blood w^as shed on either side, but if it had .flowed in rivers 
over the walls of Sumter, it could iiot have intensified the feeling. 
No one living in the North will ever forget the great uprising of its 
people, when the news of Sumter's bombardment was sent over the 
telegraph wires into every city, town, and hamlet in the North. At 
once the people of dift'erent political parties, so hostile before, became 




Banner of Soiith Carolina. 




Fort Sumter after Bonibatdmc 



like brothers. Democrats and Republicans were all one when the 
safety of the nation was at stake. When close following the attack 
on Sumter came the news that President Lincoln had asked for 



f/ ^- ^^ - 




Setting out for the War, 



BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES. 443 

•75,000 men as volunteers to help him restore public order and " pre- 
serve the Union," it seemed as if every able bodied man in the North 
was ready to shoulder a musket. Men enlisted in the ranks who 
had been bred in luxury, and submitted with cheerfulness to the 
privations endured by the common soldier. Into the smallest vil- 
lages the war ardor penetrated, and companies were drilling and pa- 
rading in the little towns of the far West, before Mr. Lincoln's 
dispatch was two days old. The man of military knowledge and ex- 
perience was the hero of the hour. Women were as ardent as men in 
patriotism, and they assembled in crowds at every railway station 
from whence the embarking troojjs set out waving their handker- 
chiefs and fluttering patriotic ribbons of red, white, and blue, till 
they watched their soldiers out of sight. The American flag became 
more than ever a sacred emblem, and many eyes filled with tears at 
the thought of it dragged down and trampled in the dust. 

Of course there were still many in the North who sympathized 
with the South, and believed in the right of secession. Up to this 
time the South had believed that they had friends enough in the 
North to fight their battles for them in the cities of the free States. 
Ex-president Franklin Pierce had just written Jefferson Davis, that 
he believed if the war came, it would be fought in the North be- 
tween the friends and enemies of tlie South there. But the events 
following the bombardment of Sumter proved the contrary, and for 
a time hardly a voice could be heard in favor of secession, or the 
" Southern Confederacy." 

In the South, the same manifestations of feeling prevailed as in 
the Nortii. When news came that Sumter was in the hands of 
South Carolina, extravagant joy was shown. Regiments were form- 
ing everywhere to resist any attempt to force the seceded States into 
the Union. The women cheered on the men ; made cockades of 
the secession colors ; sang new songs written in the popular vein of 
excitement ; and refused to notice the young men who would not 
enlist for the coming war. Many ardent Southerners who had hated 
the " Yankees " from birth, welcomed this opportunity of freeing 
themselves from a bond of union which had always been irksome. 
The}^ felt as their fathers had felt in the days of the Revolution, and 
men and women announced themselves ready to give their lives and 
their fortunes for the " Sacred cause of liberty to the South." 



444 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE MARCH THROUGH BALTIMORE. 

The Regiment from Massachusetts. — Mob in Baltimore. — Anuiversary of Battle of Lexington. 
— General Scott. — The Seventh Regiment of New York. — A Volunteer OflBcer. — Fed- 
eral Hill. 

On the 19th of April the first vohinteer troops entered Bal- 
timore on their march to Washington. The State of Maryland 
had not seceded, and thanks to a few loyal men who led her through 
her hour of danger and disloyalty, she never did secede. But Bal- 
timore overflowed with bitterness and cursing against the Union 
and the men who came to defend her, and on this morning the 
streets were filled with a scowling, angry mob, as the cars — eleven 
in all — containing the Sixth Massachusetts regiment, rolled into 
town. These cars were drawn by horses across the city from one 
railroad station to another. As they penetrated farther into the 
city, the crowd became more dense, and the faces grew blacker 
with hate. The mob now bore sticks, paving stones, and occasion- 
ally a gun or a revolver was seen among them. Stones, brickbats, 
and all kinds of missiles were thrown through the windows of thejf 
cars. At first the soldiers bore it patiently, and without resistance, 
until all but two of the cars reached the station. These two, sep- 
arated from the others, were surrounded by a yelling crowd that 
opposed their passage. The ofiicers consulted, and concluded to 
disembark the men and march tliem in a solid column to the sta- 
tions. The brave fellows went on througli a shower of stones, 
bricks, and scattering shots from revolvers. At last, just before 
they reached the station, the colonel gave orders to fire. The sol- 
diers discharged their guns among the crowd, and several among 
the mob fell dead or wounded. The troops reached the station and 
entered the cars. "The scene that ensued was terrific," says one of 
the historians of the war.i " Taunts, clothed in most fearful lan- 
guage, were hurled at the troops by the panting crowd, who, breath- 
less with running, pressed up to the windows, presenting knives and 
revolvers, and cursing up into the faces of the soldiers." Amid such 
a scene the Massachusetts regiment passed out of the city, bearing 
with them three dead bodies of their number, and eighteen 
wounded. On this very day, the 19th of April, eighty-five years 

1 Pollard's Lost Cause. 



THE MARCH THROUGH BALTIMORE. 



445 



before, the first blood shed in the War of the Revolution had stained 
the grass in front of Lexington meeting-house. On this second 
anniversary, long to be remembered, the first blood in this civil 
war flowed in the streets of Baltimore, shed from the veins, very- 
likely, of ^the descendants of these early patriots. 

About this time the country was filled with rumors that Wash- 
ington, the national capital, was to be seized by the rebels. They 
had threatened, ever since the fall of Sumter, to unfurl their flag 
from the capitol at Washington, even from Faneuil Hall in Boston. 
Washington was poorly guarded. The disbelief in Southern seces- 
sion seems to have kept all Northern eyes and ears closed against 
danger until the Massachusetts regiment was attacked. 




Union Square, New York, April, 1861. 



General Scott, the hero of two wars, and now the veteran general- 
in-chief of the Northern army, had his head-quarters in Washington. 
But at this moment the communication through Maryland between 
our national capital and the North was cut off, and it seemed pos- 
sible that at any moment the president and his officers might be 
captured in the exposed city. The cry arose, " Washington is in 
danger." General Wool, who fought beside Scott in Canada and 
Mexico, as loyal now to his flag as in his youthful days, was in New 
York, giving all his energy to putting down treason. He caused arms 



446 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

to be distributed ; troops to be sent forward. The Seventh regi- 
ment of New York, a regiment up to this time kept for parade, and 
not for such work as war furnishes, offered itself for the field, and 
for the protection of the capitol. It was made up of the very flower 
of volunteer troops, of young men used to dainty fare and soft beds. 
But they came out gallantly in full force, and early in April were 
marching down Broadway, the main street of New York city, to 
embark for Washington. The day of that march will be long re- 
membered by the citizens. Crowds filled the sidewalks, and cheers 
rent the air as those boys marched down the splendid street. The 
deadest heart quickened in the dullest bosom at the sight of them, 
and the sound of the cheers. In their ranks was a young man 
named Theodore Winthrop, who welcomed the approaching war 
as one from which a better future for his country was sure to 
arise. He bore one of the noblest names in New England history, 
and was worthy both by nature and by descent to be a martyr in 
such a cause as this. Writing of this march down Broadway, he 
said, " It was worth a life, that march. Only one who passed as we 
did through that tempest of cheers, two miles long, can know the 
teri'ible enthusiasm of the occasion. We knew now, if we had not 
before divined it, that our great city was with us as one man, utterly 
united in the cause we were marching to sustain." 

The Seventh regiment was joined by the Eighth Massachusetts, ac- 
companied by Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, one of the vol- 
unteer generals, who had left his law office to take a command in the 
gathering army. General Butler had been a Democrat of strong 
Southern sympathies. He had favored concession after concession 
to the slave power. But when in the Democratic convention of 1860 
which met in Charleston, where he was sent as a member from 
Massachusetts, the reopening of the slave-trade was urged, Ben- 
jamin Butler had said to his colleagues, " I will not sit in a conven- 
tion which advocates a commerce pronounced piracy by the laws of 
my country," and thereupon left the convention. 

When his Southern friends and fellow politicians told him they 
meant to secede, he asked coolly, "Are you prepared for war, then." 
" Oh, the North will not fight," was the contemptuous answer. 
" The North will fight," returned Butler. " The moment you fire 
on the flag, the North will be a unit against you. And rest assured, 
if the war comes, slavery will end." And this man was one of the 
first to ask a place in the army of the Union. You can fancy what 



THE MARCH THROUGH BALTIMORE. 



447 



a blow it was to the hopes of the South that their Northern friends 
would be their allies in this rebellion, when such men as Benjamin 
Butler appeared in the field against them. 

It was no longer safe to march troops through Baltimore, and 
Butler therefore led them around the city. They were embarked 
at the head of Chesapeake Bay, and sent by steamers down the 
river to Annapolis. From that city the Seventh New York regi- 
ment marched down through Maryland to the capital, and on the 
25th of April they entered Washington and marched to the capitol 
buildings. The country breathed freely. Washington was saved 
from its foes. 

One thing was certain. A way must be made through Baltimore 
for the march of the troops southward. There were plenty of Union 
men and women in Baltimore, but just now they were overborne 
and kept under by the secessionists. Benjamin Butler proposed to 
free the city from their rule and establish law and order there. 




Federal Hill. 



Accordingly he moved northward from Annapolis and seized a rail- 
way station nine miles south of the city. He remained near Balti- 
more until the night of the 13th of May, when, under cover of a 
black thunder-storm, he took up a station with his troops on Fed- 
eral Hill, commanding the city. On that very hill, in 1787, the loyal 
people of Maryland had celebrated with splendid rites the adoption 
of the National Constitution. From the brow of this same eminence, 
on the 14th of May, 1861, the black throats of the cannon leveled 
towards Baltimore, were prepared to thunder forth their commands 

29 



448 STOEY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

of obedience to the laws of this Constitution. The loyal citizens 
of Baltimore rejoiced ; treason was suppressed, and from that hour 
national troops marched through Maryland unmolested by mobs. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE SECEDING STATES. 



Au Armed Rebellion. — The Southern Confederacy. — The Seven Pioneers of Secession. — 
East Tennessee. — The Stars and- Bars. — Ellsworth Zouaves. — Death of Ellsworth.— 
Contrabands. — Theodore Winthrop. 

After the attack on the Massachusetts soldiers at Baltimore, 
and the march of the troops on Washington, even the people in the 
North most reluctant to believe in war, began to see that it was 
already at their doors. A few Northern newspapers talked against 
" coercing the South," the " wickedness of iuvading sister States," 
and the "horrors of fratricidal war," but the great party said: 
" This is an armed rebellion, which must be put down by arms, or 
the nation's life is destroyed." Let us look for a moment at the 
two divisions of the country thus up in arms against each other. 

After the Southern States had formed their confederacy, they con- 
fidently expected the eight other slave-holding States would at once 
flock to join them. But this was not so easy a matter as the seces- 
sionists believed. The States which had at first taken themselves 
out of the Union were the farthest remote from the North. Be- 
tween them and the Middle and Northwestern States lay Maryland, 
Delaware, Kentucky^ Missouri^ all bordering on the free States, and 
known as the "• Border States." By their position they were more 
exposed to influences from the North. West Virginia, East Ten- 
nessee, and part of North Carolina were all mountainous regions, 
and slavery had never flourished well among mountains. It is cer- 
tain that some of the most ardent Unionists dwelt in the mountain 
regions of these three States, and suffered for their devotion to the 
nation as no others suffered in the great struggle. 

The first to follow the lead of the seven pioneers of rebellion was 
Virginia. As soon as Fort Sumter was fired upon, she passed au 
" act of secession," and was received with boisterous delight as the 
"eighth Confederate State." "Virginia, the mother of the presi- 
dents, has joined our ranks," they cried. But the people of West 



THE SECEDING STATES. 449 

Virginia, across tlie Alleghany Mountains, loyal to the core, resisted 
with might and main the action of the eastern part of the State. 
The secession act passed in April, and in June the western counties 
declared themselves " the State of West Virginia," and one of the 
United States. They maintained their position, and finally tri- 
umphed. Before the war was over, West Virginia was made a sep- 
arate State, and was forever divided from Old Virginia. 

The next State to leave the Union was Arkansas. Early in ^lay, 
her governor, aided by a few powerful politicians, joined her for- 
tunes to the " Confederacy," although the State had before voted 
not to secede. On the 20th of j\Iay North Carolina followed, in 
spite of many Unionists dwelling on her soil. She seceded on the 
anniversary of that day in 1775 on which her fathers in the Revolu- 
tion had declared themselves free from English rule. Tearing down 
the old flag she put up a new one in its 
stead, which still bore the tri-color of the 
republic. On the 8th of June Tennessee 
held a secession convention. The loyal 
men from the eastern part of the State were 
prepared to vote against secession. It was 
hoped that a majority, peaceably obtained, 
would preserve the State. But they were """he Secession piag. 

warned that no man could A'ote for the Union in the convention. 
" If he speaks for the South, we have no reply," wrote one of the 
secessionists of Tennessee in reference to a loyal man who wished to 
speak in the convention.^ "If against the South, our only answer 
to him and his backers must be cold steel and bullets." By thus 
choking down free speech, Tennessee was joined to the Southern 
Confederacy. But the mountains of East Tennessee were full of 
Union men 'who suffered terribly for devotion to their country. 
Hunted like dogs by rebel guerrillas ; pinched with cold and with 
hunger ; killed on their very hearth-stones under the eyes of wife 
and children ; these men clung to the Union and their flag, as mar- 
tyrs cling to the cross for which they die. With Virginia, Tennes- 
see, North Carolina, and Arkansas, the Southern Confederacy had 
eleven States. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri did 
not join them. Little Delaware had no inclination to leave her 
comfortable corner in the Union for the uncertainties of a rebellion. 
Maryland, awed by Butler's resolute action, was held firm by the 

1 Greeley's Ainevicim Conjiict. 




450 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



loyal men who guarded liei" honor, and preserved her to the right 
cause in spite of the many traitors in her borders. Kentucky de- 
cided to be " neutral." She would not leave the Union, and she 
would not fight the South. She was constantly torn by dissensions. 
Many of her sons found honorable graves in fighting for their old 
flag ; many others fell in the ranks of the rebel army. Missouri, the 
most western border State, was also divided by hostile factions, but 
the valor of a few men kept her in the Union ranks. She was, for 
a time, one of the battle-fields of the republic, and I will tell you 
presently how well she was defended by some of her sons from the 
attack of treason. 

The campaign of 1861, the opening year of the war, was princi- 
pally in the border States of Virginia and Missouri. The border 
States were the great breakwater to hold back the tide of insurrec- 
tion. Th6 loyalists felt they must hold them securely and keep up 
the conflict within their limits, or the whole country would be 
plunged into ruin. Let us see how the struggle went on in Vir- 
ginia and Missouri after the war had actually begun. 

While the rebels were talking about the capture of Washington, 
the " Yankee capital," they were making terrible threats against 
the United States government if it should " invade the South," and 
" plant troops on the sacred soil of Virginia." But by the last of 

May the government saw that it was 
necessary to its safety to send troops 
into Virginia. Already the new Con- 
federate flag; of " stars and bars " waved 
in full sight of the capital, from the town 
of Alexandria, and from the top of Ar- 
lington Heights, where Colonel Lee, the 
leader of the rebel forces in Virginia, 
had his dwelling-place, the same emblem 
flaunted. On the 24th of May the na- 
tional troops crossed the Potomac and 
took possession of Alexandria. A regi- 
ment called the New York Zouaves, com- 
manded by Colonel Ephraim E. Ells- 
worth, first entered the town. Ellsworth 
was young, handsome, and daring, and 
his Zouaves, dressed in brilliant uniforms of red, blue, and yellow, 
after the costume of a French corps who had served in the Crimean 
War, were the admiration of all who saw tJiem. 




WESTERN VIRGINIA. 



453 



One party in front, and the other in the rear, tlins cutting them off 
from their companions at Big Bethel. After capturing them at the 
first point, the}^ v/ere to march to Big Bethel and finish the enemy 
there. The two bodies marched under cover of darkness, and from 
this a fatal mistake arose. Just as they neared Little Bethel the 
two divisions met, and mistaking friends for foes in the uncertain 
light, they fired into each other's ranks, and killed and wounded 
several before the error was discovered. The firing warned the 
rebels whom they were marching to surprise, and the force at Little 
Bethel made an immediate retreat to join their friends at the other 
church. General Pierce, who commanded the expedition, marched 
on towards Big Bethel. But by this time the rebels were prepared, 
and from behind intrenchments of earth they rained a hot fire on 
our men. Major Winthrop mounted a log near the outworks to 
cheer on his men, and in the very ardor of the charge was shot 
through the brain and fell instantly. Almost at the same moment 

Lieutenant Greble, a young ar- ^^^^^^ 

tillery officer, was shot dead at 

his guns. Both these deaths 

caused great mourning. The 

loss of Winthrop, just in the 

opening of a career of such 

promise, was felt by the country 

as if she had lost her dearest 

son. The names of Ellsworth, 

Greble, and Winthrop headed 

the list of that vast army of 

patriots who fell in the nation's 

defense. Before long it had swelled to such numbers that deaths 

like theirs made hardly a ripjile of excitement except in the home 

circle which missed them, and had thus lost them forever. 




An Army Forge. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



WESTERN VIRGINIAN 

The Ghost of Casar. — Rich Mountain. — Carrick's Ford. — Union Defeat. — Loyalty in the 

Mountains. 

West Virginia is one of the most mountainous regions in this 
country. The Alleghanies divided in two the State of old Virginia, 



454 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and the western half was formed of steep mountains and interlac- 
ing hills, from whose sides rapid flowing rivers rush off to pour 
themselves into the great Ohio which bounds West Virginia. As I 
have told you, the people in these wild mountain regions were patri- 
otic to the core, and determined to resist rebellion. Early in June, 
the rebels had sent an army to Philippi, under the rebel General 
Porterfield, to awe the people into disunion. Philippi is the name of 
the place in Roman history where Brutus saw the ghost of murdered 
Caesar. I do not know what sort of dreams the rebel general had 
at this modern Philippi, but I am sure they were not the- kind of 
visions that arise from a patriotic conscience. On the night of the 
2d of June, a party of Union forces were marching towards Phil- 
ippi. They were divided into two columns, — General Kelly in 
command of one, and Colonel Dumont of the other. It was pitchy 
dark, and a rain fell, wetting them all to the skin. Dumont arrived 
first, and began the attack without waiting for the other column. 
He had almost beaten the enemy when Kelly came up to see their 
retreat and receive a dangerous wound as a farewell from the flying 
rebels. This was the first battle after war had really opened. 

The Union troops in Ohio and West A^irginia were all placed 
under command of General George B. McClellan, an officer who 
had graduated with honor from the military school at West Point, 
and gained some warlike experiences in Mexico. He was still 
young, with fine soldierly bearing, a good disciplinarian, and adored 
by his soldiers. On the 23d of June he came into Virginia to take 
command in person. He had with him General Rosecrans, whom 
he at once sent to attack a part of the enemy on Rich Mountain. 
General Garnett was commanding all the rebel forces in West Vir- 
ginia, and he had posted Colonel Pegram with 1,600 men on Rich 
Mountain, and was encamped himself on Laurel Hill, a few miles 
distant, with a much larger force. Rosecrans took 3,000 men for his 
march up the steepy sides of Rich Mountain. It was raining hard — 
it seems always to have rained in West Virginia in these days — 
and it was hard climbing. The soldiers dragged themselves up as 
best they could, and when fairly on the top found that they had 
gained a position above Pegram, and in his rear. The Unionists 
charged down upon them and put them all to flight. Pegram wan- 
dered about all night trying to make a safe retreat, and by daylight 
of July 12th came up and surrendered to Rosecrans his remaining 
army — about six hundred men. 



WESTERN VIRGINIA. 



455 



As soon as General Garnett heard of Pegi'ani's misfortune he took 
up camp and began a retreat to the Cheat River. He took his way 
through ditficult mountain passes pursued by another part of Mc- 
Clellan's forces. On the way the rebel soldiers threw away their 
guns, knapsacks, blankets, anything that would lighten their march. 
The Unionists followed closely on their heels. At length they 




Carrick's Ford. 

came in siglit of the fugitives at a fording place in the river, called 
"Carrick's Ford." Here Garnett turned to give battle and stood 
bravely at bay. His men were routed, but General Garnett would 
not flee. Standing almost alone on the field, he was shot dead by a 
rifle in the hands of a sharp-shooter. Onlj^ one youtli, scarcely more 
than a boy, was with him when he fell, still fighting gallantly. 
This boy shared the fate of his general. 

In the mean time General Henry A. Wise had an army in the 
Kanawha Valley, down among the mountains near the centre of the 
State. Wise was the governor who hung John Brown, and was then 
very severe on treason. General Cox went in pursuit of him, when 
Wise immediately began to retreat towards General Floyd, who 
was coming from the South with more soldiers. It looked as if 
the rebels meant to hold Western Virginia. General Floyd had 
been secretary of war in Buchanan's time, and had greatly aided 
the South by sending thousands of United States muskets thither 
from Springfield arsenal, just before the States seceded. 



456 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



He was marching along the Gaiiley River to meet Wise, when he 
heard that the Union troops were close upon him. He got up early, 
made a countermarch, surprised the Union troops while they were 
eating breakfast, and routed them completely. Then Floyd came 
triumphantly back to Carnifax Ferry on the Gauley River, and sat 
down there to wait. Rosecrans, always wide awake, was soon on 
the march for Floyd. He came over the mountain which faces the 
Gauley River, up a winding road in the mountain's side, down the 
rough sides in front of Carnifax. When he had nearly reached the 
river level he saw Floyd on a wooded crest opposite, with guns all 
ready. It was a good jjosition for FIojhI, and after fighting several 
hours, the Unionists had the worst of it. But in the night the 
rebels ran away and left their post. Probably they felt they could 
not hold it, and were satisfied with what results they had attained. 
Floyd marched again to join Wise, who had built a camp on 
another mountain, and characteristically named it " Camp Defi- 
ance.'' 

Just at this time Robert E. Lee, the general of the whole rebel 

army in Virginia, came out into 
this region. Robert Lee had 
been an officer in the United 
States army. He was a son of 
brave Harry Lee of the Revolu- 
tion, a man very near to Wash- 
ington's heart and counsels. This 
son Robert, had married a daugh- 
ter of Washington's adopted son 
George Custis, and was bound to 
his country by every tie that 
should make her sacred. He 
avowed that he passed through a 
General Robert E. Lee. terrible strugglc wlieu Virginia 

seceded, between his love for his country and liis devotion to his 
State. When he decided to follow his State he was at once made 
major-general of the rebel army in Virginia. He was especially 
valuable to the Southern cause, from the fact that he was a near 
friend of General Scott, and while undecided which cause he should 
espouse, he had been admitted to the war councils of the general- 
in-chief, and was thus able to carry with him the plans of our 
leading general. We shall hear often of General Lee, for he was 
one of the most famous officers in the rebel army. 




THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT. 457 

Lee then came to West Virginia after Garnett, Wise, and Floyd 
had failed to make any impression there. At the time of his com- 
ing, the secession cause was weak in West Virginia. Disloyalt}^ could 
not breathe Well the pure air of those mountain-tops. He made one 
ineffective advance on a part of Rosecrans's forces under General 
Reynolds, and very soon w'as called back and sent to a Southern 
command. Wise, who never did much of anything but bluster and 
tell what he was going to do, was called to Richmond. Floyd was 
soon chased out of the loyal half of Virginia. In the northeast, 
Kelly, who was able to take the field again, was dealing hard knocks 
to the rebels in that part of the State. On the last day of the year 
1861 General Milroy dispersed the rebels in Huntersville, where 
they held a strong post. West Virginia was all through the war 
a battle-ground of the republic : but little attempt was made after 
this to raise any rebel forces among the inhabitants there. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT. 

A Knot of Raihvays. — General Beauregard. — A Moonlight March. — The Stone Bridge. — The 
Cromwell of Rebellion. — Stonewall Jackson. — " Johnston's Men are upon us.'' — Bull Run. 

In July, 1861, " the grand army of the United States " had 
crossed from Washington into Virginia. Its commander was Gen- 
eral McDowell, who had won promotion years before, at the battle 
of Buena Vista. He led an army of nearly 30,000. Most of them 
were the men whom Lincoln had called out to serve for three 
months, after Sumter was fired ujDon. The three months were 
nearly up, and many of the men were ready to go home. If they 
had enlisted for three years, instead of three months, they would 
have served patiently through their time. But tlie near approach 
of the day which freed them from the new restraints of war, made 
thoughts of home almost too strong for them. 

The enemy against whom McDowell marched, had for some rea- 
son been concentrated at Manassas Junction, a railway crossing, 
binding together the railway lines of Virginia leading west and 
south. To hold this junction was to hold the approach to Rich- 
mond, now the capital city of the rebels, where Jefferson Davis was 
sitting in state, as " President of the Southern Confederacy." The 



458 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Southern army under General Beauregard were carefully guarding 
Manassas. 

Beauregard was the man who ordered the bombardment of Sum- 




Residence of Jefferson Davis. 

ter. He was a thin, brown-skinned little man, with black eyes and 
perfectly white hair. Probably he hated the "Yankees" more 
heartily than any other Southern general. " We shall whip the 
North," he said to his army, " if we have nothing for weapons but 
flint-lock muskets and pitchforks." ^ 

On the 20th of July the rebel army occupied the west bank of 
a thickly wooded stream known as Bull Run. It was a branch of a 
larger stream that flowed into the Potomac. Although not wide, 
the current was strong, and the water so deep that it could be forded 
only at intervals of perhaps a mile. The rebels presented a front 
of nearly eight miles, along this stream. Their right wing rested 
on a ford called Union Mills Ford. Their left held a stone bridge 
over which one of the main roads of the country crossed Bull Run. 
Behind his lines Beauregard was quietly encamped at Manassas. 
He knew McDowell was at Centreville, only a few miles east of 
Bull Run. He was also very well informed of the movements and 
plans of the Union commander, for Washington was then swarming 
with spies, who, under the garb of loyalty, remained there to fur- 
nish the rebels with information from our army and the government. 
With Beauregard was General Johnston, who had been commanding 
the forces in the Shenandoah Valley, in West Virginia. He had 
arrived that very day in Beauregard's camp, and his army of 8,000 
men were hurrying to join him there. 

1 rollard's Lost Cause. 



THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT. 



459 



In the camp of General McDowell all was preparation. Saturday 
night, the night of the 20th, was a glorious moonlight. The men 
were ordered to march at half-past two on Sunday morning, and 
although it was later before they were all ready, the moon had not 
yet set, and her soft light, pouring down on the marching columns, 
made the scene one of romantic beauty. When Sunday dawned, 
the men were on their way to Bull Run, to meet the enemy for the 
first time. 

McDowell knew that without reinforcements the number of Beau- 
regard's troops did not exceed, even if they quite equaled, his own. 
He felt that victory was sure, if Johnston's army did not come to 
Beauregard's aid. And General Patterson, with 18,000 men, had 
been sent to Shenandoah to prevent Johnston from crossing over to 
Beauregard. McDowell trvisted to Patterson to keep Johnston in 




The Stone Bridge. 

check. If McDowell could only have known that Patterson had 
proved incapable, or false to his trust, and that at the very moment 
of the advance from Centreville, Johnston sat in council with his 
brother commander at Manassas, hourly expecting his ti-oops to join 
him ! 

It was nine in the morning when a division of McDowell's, under 
General Hunter, crossed a ford a mile or two above the enemy's left 
and came down upon them at the " stone bridge." General Evans 



460 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



commanded the rebels at this point. He made a good defense, but 
was obliged to fall back and give a new front to his assailants. 
General Bee with his brigade was sent to aid him. Still Hunter 
pressed them farther and farther back till they were a mile and a 
half from the sti'eam. Another brigade had been sent to reinforce 
the Unionists. This brigade belonged to an impetuous, yellow-haired 
commander, named William T. Sherman. The rebels, under Bee 
and Evans, severely pressed, were falling into disorder. Already 
the news of victory had been sent back to Washington, and the 
telegraph wires were sending the glad tidings over all the North. 
Members of Congress, and civilians of all classes, waited at Centre- 
ville (McDowell's head-quarters of the day before) the victorious 
march of our army towards Richmond. 

As Generals Bee and Evans conducted their retreat, it was 
checked by the appearance of a man on horseback, sitting motion- 
less as marble, in front of a brigade also waiting and immovable. 
This was General Thomas Jackson of Virginia, Avith his troops. If 
rebellion had its Cromwell in this war for state rights, Thomas 
Jackson was the prototype of the old Puritan warrior. Here he 
sat grimly waiting amid the raging of the battle. His neck was 
encased in a high black stock in which he turned only his head as 
he gave his decisive orders. 

" General Jackson, they are beating us back," cried Bee, despair- 
ingly, at sight of him. 

"• Then we will give them the bayonet," coolly answered tjiis im- 
perturbable figure. Bee turned again to his defeated troops. 

" Boys, here are Jackson and his Virginians like a STONE- WALL. 
Let us resolve to die, and Ave will conquer." The phrase " stone- 
wall " became historical, and from that 
hour the grim commander was known 
as " Stonewall Jackson." 

Down at Manassas Beauregard and 
Johnston heard the roar of guns, and 
galloped in eager haste to the battle- 
field, ordering up fresh troops to 
join their discouraged soldiers on the 
field. These fresh troops met the 
tired Unionists, already gasping with 
thirst under the July sun. The two 
armies were now on a high plain above 
stonewall Jackson. ^i^q Ruu, bordcrcd ou two sldcs by 




THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT. 461 

thick woods. The Unionists still outnumbered their foes, but the 
latter had stationed cannon in the woods which swept a deadly jfire 
through the national lines. From high noon till three o'clock the 
battle raged here. Back and forth, like great waves, the lines 
surged against each other. Guns were captured and recaptured on 
both sides. Still victory remained undecided. 

All this time Beauregard and Johnston waited anxiously to hear 
from the reserve troops from the Shenandoah, which were hourly 
expected. The rebel general had watched for their approach 
throuo'h a strong field-glass, for hours. It was about three o'clock 
when his signal flags warned him that a column was coming toward 
the field. He looked to see if the "stars and stripes," or the 
" stars and bars," waved at its head. If the former, it would be 
Patterson coming to the relief of McDowell ; if the latter, Johns- 
ton's army was marching to his aid. As he looked, the wind spread 
out the flag. It was the welcome banner of the " Confederacy ! " 
Beauregard knew then that the day was his. 

The first Avarning the Unionists had of their new enemy, was from 
loud yells on all sides, as the rebels dashed upon them, led by Gen- 
eral Kirby Smith, a recreant son of old Connecticut. The cry 
arose, " Johnston's men are upon us," and at once a panic incon- 
ceivably wild arose among them. In maddest confusion, they ran 
Hke frightened animals, with no order or discipline, dropping guns, 
knapsacks, blankets, even hats and coats, by the way. They 
plunged into the stream and rushed on toward Centreville. The 
panic spread to Centreville, and the civilians there, infected with 
the fear, fled toward Washington. It was the strangest, most dis- 
graceful flight in history. Teamsters unharnessed their horses and 
fled with them, leaving the loaded teams in the road. The way to 
Washington was crowded with fugitives. On Monday morning a 
disorderly tide was still pouring into the capital, and the deepest 
despair brooded over the national council halls. 

The North, which had heard victory first claimed for its arms, 
could hardly believe the shameful story. When at last it realized 
what a disgrace had fallen on it, the whole nation was in mourning. 
Through all the war there was only one sadder day than that in 
which the defeat at Bull Run was proclaimed in the land. 



462 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE GREAT BORDER STATE. 

Border Ruffians. — The Faithful Germans. — Keeping Neutral. — The " Rebel Yell." — Heroic 
Death of Lyon. — Fremont in St. Louis. — His Proclamation. — Removal from Command. — 
Fremont's Body-guard. — Charge of the Guard. — Beriah Magoffin. — McClellan commands 
the Army of the Potomac. — All Quiet on the River. 

While all these things were happening in East and West Vir- 
ginia, important events were taking place elsewhere. From Mis- 
souri to Virginia is a long stride, but we will make it in imagina- 
tion in order that we may see how secession and loyalty are at work 
there. 

There was a very strong secession spirit in Missouri. The " bor- 
der ruffians " of the old Kansas fights were still living, and would 
--^-^ -="^t;=^=^ _ gladly have joined their State 

with the " Southern Confeder- 
acy." George Jackson, the rul- 
ing governor, was an ardent 
rebel. He had for an ally 
Sterling Price, a former gov- 
ernor of Missouri, a man of mil- 
itary ability and experience. 
^ These two men went at once 
to work to raise an army. They 
claimed that this was to be a 
state army, to protect Missouri 
Missouri would remain " neutral," 
But the fact that both Price 




A Cannon Truck. 



against war and invasion, while 

neither taking one side nor the other 

and Jackson were violent against the United States government, 

that they were all the time corresponding with rebel leaders ; and 

that they took the first opportunity of joining their army with the 

rebel forces from Arkansas, shows how much truth there was in 

their pretense of being " neutral." 

St. Loviis was the great metropolis of all that region, and sitting 
as she does on the Missouri River, was a very important place to 
hold. Fortunately for the national cause, she had a large mass of 
German citizens who had left a monarchical government in Europe 
for a home in this republic. They were devoted to their adopted 
country, and firm friends to the Unmi^ and came as one man to its 



THE GREAT BORDER STATE. 463 

rescue. Franz Sigel, a soldier who had fought republican battles in 
Germany, was ready to lead his fellow-countrymen. It is difficult 
to tell what might have happened to St. Louis at that hour if it 
had not been for her faithful German citizens. There was one man 
in St. Louis who turned out to be a host in himself. This was Cap- 
tain Nathaniel Lyon, who had fought in the battle of Cerro Gordo 
and Churubusco, and been wounded at the gates of the Mexican 
capital. He was a slender, red-haired man, full of courage, and 
ready for all emergencies. He held the arsenal at St. Louis, forti- 
fied the city, and by June 1st he had an army organized to meet 
Price. He had a sharp little skirmish at Booneville, where the 
rebels had congregated, and drove them out of that town. Li the 
opening of this rebellion he was one of the most valuable officers in 
our army. 

As soon as the conflict began in Missouri, Price marched to the 
southwest corner of his State, and meeting the rebel general Mc- 
Culloch there, with an army from Arkansas, he joined his forces to 
McCulloch's and took command under him. This was probably 
what he meant by "keeping neutral." Then they marched north 
together to find Lyon, who by this time had General Sigel and 
his Germans with him. 

Lyon was encamped at Springfield the last of July, when Mc- 
Culloch advanced from the south. They first met each other at 
"Dug Springs," twenty miles from Springfield, but this engagement 
decided nothing. A few days after this, on the 10th of August, Mc- 
Culloch was encamped on the banks of Wilson's Creek, nine miles 




Hauling Cannon. 



from Lyon's camp at Springfield. McCulloch had much the largest 
army. But it was the raggedest, most starveling army that ever 
went out to fight. They had lived principally on green corn on 
their march. Hungry, dirty, and ragged, their misery deserved a 



30 



464 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

better cause. Lyon, although in much smaller force, determined to 
go out and attack them. He knew Springfield was difficult to de- 
fend, and likely to yield to larger numbers if he allowed McCulloch 
to come and attack him. He set out, 'therefore, accompanied by 
Sigel to give battle. They marched very silently to surprise the 
enemy, muffling the wheels of the cannon that their rolling might 
not be heard. Sigel attacked on one side, Lyon on the other. 
Although his force was greatly inferior, Sigel was doing well, and 
had taken some prisonei'S, when he saw a column approaching, bear- 
ing the American flag. He supposed it to be part of Lyon's army, 
till, with the wild " rebel yell," with which the Missourians rushed 
to battle, they fell on him and defeated him with great loss. 

On his side Lyon was fighting gallantly. Early in the day he 
had been twice wounded, in the head and in the leg. But he 
seemed unconscious of wounds or danger. Riding from one part of 
the field to another, the blood from his wounded head trickling 
down his face, his whole nervous frame alive with fiery ardor, he 
seemed to pervade the whole battle. But after Sigel's defeat, the 
day looked black. Lyon said sadly to an officer, " I fear the day 
is lost." At this moment a regiment, whose leader had fallen, 
cried out for some one to lead them. Lyon rose in his saddle and 
waved his sword. " Come on, my brave boys," he cried, " I will 
lead you. Forward ! " On the instant a ball pierced his heart ; he 
reeled in his saddle and fell lifeless. For a moment there was a 
dead silence ; then with a great cry the Kansas regiment that Lyon 
was about to lead, broke upon the enemy. For half an hour the 
fight was terrible ; then the Unionists retreated to Springfield, and 
the rebels remained holding the field. The loss of that day was a 
great one in the death of Lyon. No more prompt and loyal man 
had risen to notice since the war. There was another day of mourn- 
ing in the North when his death was known. 

John C. Fremont had been appointed at the beginning of the 
war, the commander of the West. He was in Europe, but hurried 
home at the first summons and went to St. Louis. He arrived 
there late in July, and began to take the most energetic measures. 
He sent down immediatel}'^ to guard the town of Cairo, on the river, 
which he knew would be a most important place if seized by rebels. 
The work before Fremont was immense. He could with difficulty 
get men or money from the government. Almost the first things 
that happened after he arrived was the defeat at Wilson's Creek, 



THE GREAT BORDER STATE. 465 

:ind Lyon's death. He worked bravely, however, and very soon 
pnblished a proclamation, in which he declared the slaves of all the 
rebels in arms against the government, /reg men and women. This 
made great excitement. As yet, the North was not at all prepared to 
free the slaves. They still kept declaring they were not going to 
harm or overturn any of the Southern institutions, and they seem 
to have believed, if they were very careful not to touch slavery, 
the rebellion would soon be over. So Fremont's proclamation was 
thought very daring, and the government asked him to retract. He 
said he could not in good conscience take back an act which he be- 
lieved right, unless he was openly directed to do so by the president. 
Mr. Lincoln accordingly ordered the part of the proclamation relating 
to slaves to be repealed, to the great disappointment of all those 
who believed that slavery was the root of the war, and that only 
by cutting at the root could the tree be killed. 

Encompassed by so many anxieties. General Fremont did not 
lead an easy life in Missouri. The town of Lexington, an impor- 
tant town on the Missouri River, had just been taken by rebels. 
Colonel Mulligan, with less than 3,000 men, had held the place 
three days against overwhelming numbers, and finally was forced to 
yield. Fremont was loudly blamed that he had not sent men to 
Mulligan, but witli such numbers of points to guard, and such want 
of men to fill all the points, I hardly see how he could have done 
better. It is so much easier for other people to see mistakes after 
some one else has made them. 

Fremont resolved to go himself into the field with his army, to 
silence at once all clamors. But he w^as hardly on the march, before 
an order came to remove him from his generalship in the West. 
His army sorrowfully came back to St. Louis, and very sadly bade 
him farewell. 

Among Fremont's troops were a company of one hundred and 
fifty young men, mounted on superb bay horses. The greater part 
of them were patriots from Keiitucky, and their leader was a brave 
Hungarian, Major Charles Zagonyi. This company was known as 
"Fremont's body-guard." 

On his brief march before his recall, Fremont had sent this guard 
in advance to mark the position of the rebel forces. Soon after 
starting, Zagonyi was joined by a battalion called " Prairie scouts,'^ 
increasing his force to three hundred men. Going merrily on 
towards Springfield, within two hours' march of the town, they were 



466 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

met by a Union farmer who told them the enemy, two thousand in 
number, were in Springfield. Zagonyi turned to his little band of 
three hundred : " Comrades, the enemy is before us, two thousand 
strong. If any man would turn back, do it now." Not a man 
stirred. The horses, perfectly trained, stood like horses of stone. 
" Then follow me," shouted the brave Hungarian, " and do as I do." 
With this the troops dashed on. Over a muddy brook where the 
horses' hoofs stuck in clinging mud ; stopping to tear down a high 
board fence in sight of the enemy's sharp-shooters ; down through a 
lane bordered with woods from which murderous rifles picked them 
off at every shot ; through all these obstacles the guard dashed on, 
crying " Union and Fremont," as they rode. It was like running 
the gauntlet of death. Seventy bodies were left dead or wounded 
in the lane. 

When they emerged they saw the enemy — four hundred horse, 
twelve hundred foot — posted on a hill in front of the town. Still 
sounding their battle-cry, the guard spurred onward. One band 
of thirty burst with such impetuous fury on the cavalry's ranks that 
they scattered them in that one charge. The rest, riding with head- 
long speed among the infantry, spread wild confusion in their ranks. 
Right and left fled the rebels, the guard at their heels. Into neigh- 
boring corn fields, trampling down the tasseled grain ; into the 
woods, at whose border the pursuers reigned up their steeds ; back 
to the village, whose streets swarmed with men fighting hand to 
hand ; this way and that, fled the rebel forces, pell-mell, till the 
field was clear, and Zagonyi and his guard held Springfield. But 
the foe might return in larger force, and Zagonyi knew himself too 
weak to hold the field. He therefore left the town in the night and 
fell back towards Fremont. It was the one brilliant exploit of the 
guard. On Fremont's recall the}'^ were disbanded, and the charge 
at Springfield was their only opportunity to win the glory they 
thirsted for. 

One of the best things done by Fremont in his very brief admin- 
istration of affairs in St. Louis was the guarding of Cairo. Cairo is 
a very \ininvitmg looking town on the Missouri, just where the 
Ohio River comes pouring in. But muddy, and dirty, and low- 
lying as it is, it would have been great gain to the rebels if they 
had taken it. In the fall of 1861, an officer named Ulysses S. Grant, 
newly made a major-general of our armies, was stationed at Cairo. 
Hearing that the rebel forces were marching up into Kentucky, he 



THE GREAT BORDER STATE. 467 

reached out an arm of strength and took Paducah, a town on the 
Ohio, just on its bend to the Missouri. The Kentucky governor, 
who bore the very extraordinary name of Beriah Magoffin, was all 
the time loudly proclaiming the neutrality of Kentucky. This neu- 
trality on the part of Beriah, consisted principally in ordering Union 
troops from off the " polluted soil of Kentucky," and in blandly 
ignoring the entrance of the rebel troops inside her borders. But 
the people of Kentucky were largely loyal, and many regiments 
from her midst were already in the field to fight for the nation. 
Leonidas Polk, a rebel general from Louisiana, a fighting Bishop 
of the Episcopal Church, was marching up to take Columbus, a town 
south of Cairo on the river. With him was General Pillow, who 
had seen good service in Mexico, and had deserted the flag under 
which he then fought, for the new flag of Jefferson Davis and his 
fellow conspirators. These were in the west, while in the east of 
Kentucky, in her mountain-region, Felix Zollicoffer had marched 
the rebel troops from Tennessee, to keep those mountain Unionists 
under. But the Unionists were ready for him, and in the very first 
skirmish drove his army back from their encampment. 

Up at Louisville, Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter fame guarded 
the river borders. He was ill, and almost unfit for service, but a 
remarkable aid of his, William T. Sherman, was ready at any time 
to step into the command. Already he had baffled an attempt of the 
rebel General Buckner to surprise Louisville, and he was at work 
organizing a great army which would one day be known as the 
" Army of the Cumberland." You have now in your mind's eye, I 
hope, the position of Unionists and rebels in Kentucky. Let us 
return for a time to East Virginia, and see what work was being 
done there. 

The rebels still held their camps almost in full sight of the na- 
tional capital. From some parts of the city one could see the wav- 
ing of Confederate flags. Since Bull Run the rebels had been jubi- 
lant. They believed for a time that the whole war was decided in 
that one fight. The North, by that defeat, was only incited to 
new efforts. The first 75,000 men, raised for three months, had 
gone home, and now troops enlisted for three years, or " for the 
war," poured into Washington. The tramp ! tramp ! tramp ! of 
their steady march sounded from Oregon to Maine, and southward 
through Maryland to the capital. 

General Scott had grown old and infirm. The country grumbled 



468 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




at him, and called for a young commander. In answer to this call 

General George B. McClellan, 
who had managed affairs in 
West Virginia, and managed 
them well, was called to be 
general-in-chief of the armies, 
and to the command of the 
" Arni}^ of the Potomac." In 
September that army held a 
grand review of 70,000 men. 
By November it had swelled 
to 200,000 men, the largest 
army that had ever encamped 
on American soil. General 
George B. McClellan. McClellan, who undcrstood 

military matters perfectly, had drilled it and disciplined it so 
thoroughly that the men moved in the field like veteran soldiers. 
The only fault anybody found with the army and its general was 
that during the long fall and winter of 1861 they did not march on 
that enemy who all the time faced them, flaunting their flag in the 
eyes of the nation. During all this time there was only one engage- 
ment deserving the name of a battle. This took place on a high 
bluff of the Potomac, northwest of Washington, known as " Ball's 
Bluff," where the national troops were defeated and terribly slaugh- 
tered ; where Colonel Baker, a promising soldier of Oregon, lost his 
life on the field. The battle of Ball's Bluff was fought the 21st of 
October. Two months after, on the 20th December, there Avas a 
tussle with the enemy at Drainsville, in which the Unionists had 
the advantage. But for the most part these two armies remained 
idle, facing each other all these long months. And the North, 
who was waiting eagerly to see the great masses of men it had 
furnished set to work, read day after day, " All quiet along the 
Potomac," in all the newspapers, and on all the bulletin boards, till 
at last the phrase excited indignation and hot complaint. 



AFFAIRS ON THE SEA-COAST. 469 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

AFFAIRS ON THE SEA-COAST. 

The Blockade. — Blockade l{unner.s. — The Sea Islands. — A Steamboat Waltz.*— The Trent. 
— Seizure of Prisoners on an English Ship. — Feeling of England. — Danger of War 
averted. 

So far I have told you notbing about the plans of the navy and 
its war-ships. But I am sure that you do not believe our fleets are 
to lie inactive, or that the nation has forgotten what an aid in time 
of war had been the services of such men as Perry, Decatur, and 
Macdonough. When the rebellion began, we had less than one 
hundred ships ready. All summer and fall at the docks in Maine, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York, the hammer of the 
ship-builder was constantly heard. In less than a year, over three 
hundred ships could have been mustered for our navy. Early in 
the war President Lincoln had ordered the ports of the rebellious 
sea-coast " blockaded." This blockade was to stop all vessels com- 
ing from foreign ports who were carrying in any goods to sell to 
the rebels, to help them in keeping up the war ; and also to pre- 
vent any of their ships from going out to sell their cotton in foreign 
ports. Still many vessels did escape the vigilant eyes of the 
captains who were watching these ports, and many ships known 
as " blockade runners " did a good business between England and 
the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas. 

Early in August, 1861, General Butler gave up his command in 
Fortress Monroe to the veteran General Wool, who came from New 
York to take command there. General Butler was given in charge 
of a fleet, and sent to Hatteras Inlet on the coast of North Carolina. 
All old sailors know Hatteras, for it is almost always sure to blow 
such a gale off that point that one would think the four winds 
had gone mad there and blew all ways at once. Hatteras Inlet is 
the narrow entrance to Pamlico Sound, between those long narrow 
strips of islands that stretch all around our eastern and southern 
coast to Florida and Mississippi. General Butler sailed to Hatteras 
Inlet, took the forts on either side of it, and leaving a garrison there, 
went back to Washington for more troops, to get a secure foothold 
in North Carolina. 

In October another expedition was sent, much larger than Butler's. 
It was a splendid fleet under Admiral Dupont, with an army on 



470 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

board commanded by General T. W. Sherman. They were bound 
for the "Sea Islands," a swarming archipelago on the southern coast 
of South Carolina. On these islands, Hilton Head, Philip, St. 
Helena, Port Royal, and many others, grow the finest cotton in the 
world, called the •■' sea-island cotton." In the old town of Beaufort 
on Port Royal Island, were the mansions of some of the wealthiest 
of all the slave-holders. Thither went the army of gun-boats to 
attack that State which had begun the rebellion against the govern- 
ment. The flag-ship of Dupont was called the Wabash. Behind 
her were forty -eight gun-boats and steamers, and twenty-six sailing 
vessels. Though they were scattered at first by one of those bluster- 
ing gales that blow off Hatteras, they reunited in front of Hilton 
Head, and prepared for their attack. There were two forts. Fort 
Walker and Fort Beauregard, flanking the passage between Hilton 
Head and Philip's Island into the heart of the archipelago. Dupont 
formed his fleet into a huge round O, the Wabash leading the circle, 
and began to steam round and round between the two forts, each 
vessel pouring into them a hot fire as it passed slowly by. Rovmd 
and round, to the waltz-music of the cannon, went the ships, till the 
poor forts gavje way, and our ships and men held the richest lands of 
the South in their grasp. The land-holders made a swift retreat when 
they heard the news, burning as they went, their stored cotton, now 
almost worth its weight in gold. There was one class of inhabitants 
who did not run, however. These were the negroes, laborers on 
these plantations. When our ships came near they flocked eagerly 
to their sides, sometimes with all their earthly goods tied up in little 
bundles, begging to be taken away to freedom. This was the first 
genuine success of the government. The hold this expedition gained 
in the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, was of great value. 
Soon after, busy " Yankees " were experimenting in cotton raising 
on the Sea Islands, and schools established for the teaching of the 
negroes were seen on the spot where slavery had flourished best. 

In November, 1861, an exciting event took place that at one time 
seemed likely to provoke a war with England. James Mason and 
John Slidell, two agents of the rebel party, ran the blockade at 
Charleston, reached Havana safely, and there took passage on the 
English ship Trent, bound for England. They bore with them 
papers from Jefferson Davis, making Mr. Mason an ambassador to 
England, and Mr. Slidell to France, to urge those countries to recog- 
nize the seceded States as an independent nation. 



AFFAIRS ON THE SEA-COAST. 471 

Captain Wilkes, the commander of the American ship San Ja- 
cinto^ had heard of the departure of ,these two men, and resolved to 
take them off the English ship as traitors to the government, en- 
gaged in treasonable practices against the United States. He has- 
tened therefore to come up with the English vessel, and reached her 
just before she put in at the island of St. Thomas. There he 
boarded the ship, seized Mason and Slidell, and bore them to New 
York as his prisoners. 

There was great rejoicing all over the United States, and Captain 
Wilkes was publicly thanked. But in thus taking these men from 
a foreign vessel, Captain Wilkes had violated a principle upon 
which this country had previously acted. The United States had 
always denied the right of a foreign vessel to search one of its own 
ships, and take from it any one who was a passenger thereon. Eng- 
land, on the contrary, had frequently transgressed this rule. You 
remember how during the Revolution she had taken Henry Laurens 
oft" a Dutch ship, and imprisoned him in the Tower, and how prior 
to the War of 1812 she had seized so many seamen from American 
vessels, claiming them as her subjects. 

In the seizure of Mason and Slidell, therefore. Captain Wilkes 
had really transgressed the usual policy of the United States. The 
only excuse for the act was, that the country was so excited by the 
terrible struggle for its existence, that it was for the time blinded 
to what was absolutely just and right. But when England de- 
manded these two men who had been thus taken from off the planks 
of her vessel, and declared it a violation of all national courtesy to 
enter her ships and take men by violence, the country stopped to 
reason about it, and the more wise and thoughtful people at once 
said, " England is right. She merely takes the ground in .this 
matter which the United States has always taken, and Mason and 
Slidell must be given up to her protection." And although many 
people felt annoyed and humiliated at the mistake that had been 
made, it was generally felt that a wrong was better made right at 
once, than left unredressed, and that to quarrel with England in an 
unjust cause, would be very foolish indeed. So Mason and Slidell 
were allowed to go to England and France, where they had no suc- 
cess as ambassadors, and the rebels who had hoped there would be a 
war, in which England would have been their ally, wei-e very much 
disappointed at the way the whole affair had turned out. 



472 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

TAKING OF DONELSON. 

Gibraltar of tiie West. — L'. S. Grant in Cairo. — Patience and Perseverance. — Commodore 
Foote batters Fort Henry. — The Mudd}- Road to Donelson. — The Rebel Ruse. — Grant 
detects the Design. — Fall of Donelson. — Unconditional Surrender. — Halleck in Missouri. 
— A Renegade Poet. — Pea Ridge. — Guerrillas. — Close of the Year 1862. 

Will you come with me now to the theatre of war in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, where great events are to take place in the 

year 1862. We left Ulysses 
S. Grant at Cairo, holding fast 
to that valuable point on the 
Mississippi. The rebels still 
held Columbus, Kentucky, a 
point on the river below Cairo. 
They called it boastingly the 
" Gibraltar of the West," and 
declared no force could be mus- 
tered that could take it. Co- 
lumbus was the western end of 
the rebel lines in Kentucky. 
The eastern end was at Bowl- 
ing Green, on the railroad be- 
Bowling Green was called the 




Ulysses S. Grant. 

tween Louisville and Nashville. 



" Manassas of the West " in proud recollection of the rebel success 
in holding Manassas in Virginia. They felt altogether sure of 
holding Kentucky and Tennessee against Union assaults, so long as 
they held Columbus and Bowling Green, and you can see by their 
pet names,- " Gibraltar " and " Manassas," what an opinion they 
had of their strength. But the rebel lines had a middle as well as 
two ends. Two great rivers, the Tennessee and Cumberland, come 
rushing up through the States of Tennessee and Kentucky to pour 
themselves into the Ohio River just a little way from where the 
Ohio pours itself into the Mississippi. These two rivers flow side 
by side, in friendly companionship, for many miles before they join 
the Ohio. At one point where they are about twelve miles distant, 
the rebels had erected two forts, Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and 
Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. These two forts, lying about 
midway between Columbus and Bowling Green, formed the rebel 



TAKING OF DONELSON. 473 

centre. To take them would be like opening a side door to Colum- 
bus and Bowling Green. It would also be like opening a front door 
to another important point, — the town of Nashville, Tennessee, on 
the Cumberland lliver, which was guarded by these forts. Besides, 
if the forts were taken, the navigation of the rivers would be free 
to Union steamboats. Up the Tennessee, vessels could sail into the 
vState of Alabama, which so far, since the war, had been locked up 
and double-bolted against the armies of the nation. 

General Ulysses S. Grant, turning over these matters in his mind 
up in Cairo, fixed on Forts Henry and Donelson as the points on 
which to strike the blow that would cut the snake of rebellion in 
Kentucky right in two in the middle, and make the head at Co- 
lumbus, and the tail at Bowling Green, of not the slightest possible 
use to the reptile. 

You have no idea what hard work it is for a clever general to 
carry out his ideas. It is not only the work of getting a large 
army ready to move, seeing that the men have comfortable clothing, 
good shoes to marcli in, plenty of provisions carefully guarded, 
horses and wagons to carry the goods ; but, if a subordinate general 
has a good idea, he has to get leave to act upon it, from the com- 
manding general of his department. Often and often when he sees 
a good chance, and telegraphs to his superior, " May I hit the enemy 
here ? " or, " May I strike a blow in this direction ? " the command- 
ing general delays answering, or waits to examine the plans of the 
subordinate, till the golden moment goes, and it is too late to carry 
out the design. 

So Grant had to wait and wait to get leave from Halleck, com- 
mander in Missouri, to make the attempt on the two forts. For- 
tunately this was a man who knew how to wait patiently when 
there was need of it. " Patience and Perseverance " would be 
an excellent motto for U. S. Grant's war-banner. At length, on the 
last day of January, 1862, came the long wished for permission to 
march on the forts. Commodore Foote, with a fleet of iron-covered 
gun-boats, was sent down the Tennessee River in advance. Behind 
him, in steam " transports," followed Grant and his army. Fort 
Henry was known to be the weakest of the two strongholds, and 
they were to begin operations there. 

It was the 6th of February on which the attack was to be made. 
Commodore Foote was to draw up his gun-boats in front of the fort, 
and pepper away at it with all his guns. In the mean time, Grant, 



474 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



who had landed his army four miles below the fort, was to send 
General McClernand and the troops round to a back road running 
from Fort Henry t6 Donelson, to cut off any retreat that might be 
attempted from Fort Henry. He knew that Donelson was the real 
stronghold, and felt sure they would send their men and guns over 
to Donelson, if Foote succeeded in his attack. 

Commodore Foote, who was a sincere, pious soul, and no brag- 
gart, said he would have the white flag floating over Fort Henry in 
one hour from the time his boats began upon her. He was not far 
out of time. It was just an hour and five minutes after his fire 
began, that the fort surrendered. In the mean time McClernand's 
army were hurrying round to the road behind Fort Henry. Un- 
luckily it was terribly muddy, and they were behind time. All the 




Foote's Flotilla. 



rebel guns of any value and most of the men had got across before 
McClernand reached the road. Muddy roads have been the cause 
of many a loss on one side and many a gain on the other. When 
Henry surrendered there was only a handful of men in the fort, 
under a brave commander, General Tilghman, who held out stoutly 
till he had covered the retreat to Donelson. This was the 6th of 
February. Six days later Grant set out for Donelson along the road 
from Henry. As he neared the Cumberland River he kept spread- 
ing his lines till his army lay in a great half circle running outside 
of Donelson, with its two ends on the river. 

Donelson was much larger and stronger tlian Henry. General 
Pillow had been commanding there, with General Buckner, who had 
been a prominent rebel in Kentucky ever since the war began. On 
the day of Grant's march upon it, John B. Floyd had arrived there 



TAKING OF DONELSON. 



475 




with, an army and taken chief command. So there were three 
prominent generals and 15,000 men in the fort. As before, Com- 
modore Foote began the attack. But this time he was not so suc- 
cessful. The rebel guns from the fort peppered him there as badly 
as he had peppered them at Henry. He made a gallant fight all one 
afternoon, but at length was obliged to fall down the river with his 
boats injured and almost useless. It was the evening of the 14tli 
of February when Foote retired. Grant had made up his mind 
that it would take time to take the place and was going to keep up 
the siege, while he 
sent for more troops 
and repaired his gun- 
boats, when the reb- 
els helped him to a 
different conclusion. 
They had a talk in 
the fort that very 
evening, and Floyd 
concluded that they 

could not stand a Grant's Head-quarters at Fort Oonelson 

long siege. He accordingly resolved to go out next day and give 
battle. During the fight they were to watch a good opportunity 
for retreat and when it came make off in good order, leaving the 
empty fort to Grant's army. 

This was acted on next morning. General Pillow came out, and 
threw all his forces on the right end of our lines, resting on the 
river. General McClernand commanded here and held his own 
bravely. But he was very hard pressed and Pillow was feeling 
quite confident of escape if not of victory. 

Grant was down the river talking with Foote when the attack 
began. Up he galloped to the scene of battle. When he reached 
the place there was a lull in the battle, but McClernand's men, who 
had felt the heaviest of the attack were weakened and discouraged. 
Grant heard a soldier say, as he was talking with McClernand, — 

•' The rebels have come out to fight for several days. They have 
got their haversacks full of provisions." 

Grant turned suddenly. " Bring me a rebel haversack," he or- 
dered. 

The haversack of a " gray-coat " was brought to him. He ex- 
amined it and found it provisioned for three days. 



476 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

" This means retreat," be said. "• Men don't provision like this 
unless they mean to run away. One spirited attack now, will finish 
the fight." 

At once he ordered General Smith, who commanded the Union 
forces on the left, to begin the attack. General Lew. Wallace in 
the centre, and McClernand, reinforced by some fresh troops, were 
to be ready to join when they heard Smith's guns. One concen- 
trated terrible push along the whole rebel lines, and Grant felt that 
the victory was his. It was done. With overpowering force the 
whole line made the attack. The fight waxed more and more 
deadly. The snow-covered earth was spread thick with dead ; 
pools of blood everywhere stained its whiteness. The cries of the 
wounded men, suffering from the bitter cold, as well as from the 
agony of their hurts, could be heard among all the uproar of battle. 
When darkness came mercifully, to cut off for a time the carnage, 
the rebels had been driven inside their lines. 

Grant and his men were in good spirits. 

" Two hours more of good fighting to-morrow will finish the bat- 
tle," they said. 

Inside the fort General Floyd was packing up to go away. He 
feared if he were taken prisoner the government of the United 
States might remember the money and muskets he had sent to the 
Southern conspirators when he was holding an ofiice of high trust 
in Buchanan's cabinet. So, during the night, he took his army 
and got away by the river. General Pillow also thought discretion 
was the better part of valor, and discretion consisted in not being 
taken prisoner. By daylight on the 16th of Febriiar}^ General 
Buckner, the real hero of the defense, was left alone to surrender. 
He sent out to Grant to know what terms he would accept. 

" No terms but unconditional surrender can be accepted. I pro- 
pose to move immediately upon your works," answered the general, 
who wrote this dispatch in his tent sitting on an empty cracker- 
box. Buckner made no further remonstrance, and at once Grant's 
conquering army marched into Donelson. 

The very day after the capture of Donelson, General Johnston 
began a retreat with his forces from Bowling Green. Two weeks 
later General Bishop Leonidas Polk took his forces from Columbus 
and sent them to an island in the Mississippi, known as Island No. 
10. At Nashville, the frightened Governor of Tennessee packed 
up his papers and valuables, and fled to Memphis. All over the city 



TAKING OF DONELSON. 477 

of Nashville there was hurrying and scurrying to get out of 
town, among those who had reason to dread the presence of Union 
troops. On the 2Gth of February part of our army entered and 
took possession there. An expedition was sent at once to Alabama, 
and soon, in the northern part of that State, our flag waved over a 
part of the nation to which it had been long a stranger. For the 
first time since the war opened, the whole North felt it had real 
cause for joy, and every loyal heart. North and South, beat with 
thankfulness at the news of the taking of Douehon. 

After Fremont was recalled from Missouri, General Halleck was 
given command there. Fremont had made a mistake, — so Mr. 
Lincoln and the government thought, — in proclaiming the negroes 
of the rebels free men and women. Halleck did not mean to err 
on that side, so he ordered that all slaves running away to the 
Union camps should be at once sent back to their masters. The 
excuse for this order was that negroes sometimes carried information 
to the rebels which aided them in planning an attack. This is now 
known to be false. It is now known, that from first to last, from 
one boundary to the other of the " Southern Confederacy," the slaves 
were the devoted friends of the Union cause. It was proved that 
no ill treatment or distrust ever served to shake their loyalty. All 
through the war the " Yankee " soldier, wherever he found himself 
in the disloyal States, was absolutely sure of the aid and sympathy 
of the loyal negro, of all shades of color, and all degrees of intelli- 
gence. 

General Sterling Price, who had been for some time encamped in 
Springfield, suddenly heard that the Union General S. R. Curtis 
was marching down upon him. He was eating his breakfast when 
the news came and left at once with his army, leaving his dishes 
unwashed, and his half-eaten breakfast in camp. He repaired over 
the Missouri border into Arkansas, to join again his old friend 
McCulloch. There the two generals mustered quite a large army. 
Among their troops were four or five thousand Indians, from the 
Indian Territory. They were commanded by a long-haired poet, 
named Albert Pike, who had formerly written some tolerable verses 
against the dissolution of the Union. This renegade poet was born 
in Boston, Massachusetts, but seems to have forgotton both his State 
and his country. 

Curtis came on in pursuit of Price. As soon as his troops crossed 
the boundary they set up a flag-staff and unfurled the flag with a 



478 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

great clieer as they saw it flying over the soil of another State. 
Earl Van Dorn, another famous rebel, had just taken supreme com- 
mand over Price, McCuUoch, and Pike's Indian army. They were 
all in the extreme northwest corner of Arkansas, when the battle- 
hour drew near. Curtis, who had Sigel with him, was on a mount- 
ain swell, heavily wooded, and cut up by ravines, known as Pea 
Ridge. Earl Van Dorn, with a very much larger force, was threat- 
ening him all around. Curtis saw that he must fight in spite of 
the great disparity of numbers. He therefore formed his lines on 
the 7th of March, and the two armies faced each other in the Battle 
of Pea Ridge. 

The fight lasted all day, sometimes turning in favor of Unionists, 
sometimes of rebels. On that day General McCulloch was killed. 
He was a good soldier, and an important loss to the rebel cause. 
That night Curtis made all preparations for a victory in the morn- 
ing. He felt so sure of success that he was terribly disappointed 
when he got up next day and ordered the advance, to find the field 
quite empty of foes. The rebels had run away in the night. 

For some time after this, the rebels were quiet in Missouri, and 
there was very little except guerrilla warfare going on in that quar- 
ter. The "guerrillas" were bands of armed men who roamed 
about the country making raids at intervals, in which they carried 
off all the property they could, and destroyed what they could not 
carry away. They were not part of the regular army, but were 
generally led by a bold and reckless leader who called them together 
and disbanded them much at his own pleasure. The trouble with 
guerrillas (you must not get them mixed up with gorillas., though 
they are rather suggestive of wild animals), was that you never 
knew where to find them. They would make a dash in one place, 
murder a number of Union men, steal all the horses and cattle, tram- 
ple down the crops, and be off before any force could be mustered to 
capture them. The border States were very much pestered by 
guerrillas. 

To finish up events in the western border, I must tell you that 
late in the year 1862, General Hindman commanded the rebels on 
this line, with his head-quarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hind- 
man amused himself and his men by burning villages, stealing cattle, 
destroying crops, and killing Unionists in Northern Arkansas. Even 
the Confederates suffered from his rule and clamored for his recall 
from the State. He met the Union General Blunt in a sharp fight 



WORK ON THE OCKAN IN 18C.2. 479 

near Prairie Grove, in which both sides declared tliey had beaten. 
As the rebels tore up their blankets in the night, after the fighting 
was over, and wound them round their cannon wheels so as to get 
away without being heard b}' the Unionists, I should say they had 
had the worst of it. Be that a§ it may, at the end of 1862 Mis- 
souri was comparatively quiet, and there was very little of interest 
going on in Arkansas, to either the rebel or Union cause. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

WORK ON THE OCEAN IN 1862. 

Hampton Roads. —The Biiniside Expedition. —A Formidal)le Monster. — How the Cumber- 
land went down. —A Cheese Box on a Raft. - Figlit of the Monitor and Merrimack. 

Let us turn to the sea-coast once more and see what our gun- 
boats and iron-clads are doing there. In January, 1862, nearly one 
hundred ships, both steam and sailing vessels, were riding at anchor 
in Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads is not a highway on land as 
its name might imply. It is an arm of Chesapeake Bay, running up 
into the coast of Virginia. These ships and the troops on board 
them, were commanded by Commodore Goldsborough and General 
Ambrose Burnside. These were going down to the coast of North 
Carolina, to take possession of it as Dupont had taken the islands 
of South Carolina. 

They set out on the 11th of January. Just as they drew near 
Hatteras Inlet, one of the dreadful gales blew off the stormy cape. 
The splendid fleet was scattered and some of the ships lost. After 
the storm was over, seventy vessels got over the bay and made their ' 
way to Roanoke Island. They came to the very spot where Sir 
Walter Raleigh's unsuccessful colony came in 1585. How differently 
it looked in this year of grace, 1862, when the Burnside Expedition 
steamed up to capture it. Now it bristled with angry-looking can- 
non, and instead of the fragrant odors of the forest, the air was 
redolent of smoke and the smell of gunpowder. 

Burnside's success at Roanoke was as decided as Dupont's success 
at Port Royal. His troops landed on the island, marched up 
through a narrow causeway, defended on each side by cannon, and 
toolc the enemy's works in gallant fashion. After taking Roanoke 
they moved to the main-land and captured Newbern, the most im- 
31 



480 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

portant town on the North Cai'olina coast. By April the towns 
at the mouths of all the principal rivers were in the power of the 
United States. The whole coast of Carolina was blockaded by our 
ships. If Burnside had controlled land forces enough he might 
have pressed still farther inland, but in all this expedition he had 
onl}^ about 15,000 men. 

This very month of April General Quincy Gilmore, a civil 
engineer as well as a soldier, attacked Fort Pulaski, a strong- 
hold guarding the mouth of the Savannah River. This post was 
taken, and another of the best points on the coast restored to the 
nation. 

In the mean time a formidable mOnster had appeared in Hampton 
Roads, some time after Burnside left there. A fleet of Union ves- 
sels lying peacefully in the James River not far from Fortress Mon- 
roe, were startled by the appearance of an iron-clad ship making 
rapidly towards them. It was the steamer Merrimack, once a fine 
war vessel belonging to the navy. When the rebels seized the navy- 
yard at Norfolk they had sunk this ship in the harbor. On sec- 
ond thought they had raised the hulk, and found it still firm and 
seaworthy. They had put over the deck a shelving iron roof from 
which cannon-balls glanced over harmlessly, and had plated the 
sides over with iron to below the water-level. Thus fitted up, with 
a formidable pointed " beak" of oak and iron fastened to her bow, 
the Merrimack was a monster frightful to the stoutest wooden ship 
that ever sailed the seas. 

Down she came on this Saturday, the 8th of March, right upon 
the grand old Cumberland, who awaited her unflinchingly. They 
fought for two hours, the water gushing through the holes which 
the iron beak of the enemy gored in the wooden sides of the Cum- 
berland. At the last, her brave captain, Morris, refused to surrender, 
and the ship went down with one hundred dead and wounded on 
her decks, with her good flag still flying. Even after the vessel 
sank, the flag floated above the waves, a sign of hope and cheer to 
the others in the fight. 

" ' Strike your flag! ' the rebel cries 
In his arrogant old plantation strain. 
' Never ! ' our gallant Morris cries. 
' It is better ta sink than to yield ! ' 
And the whole air pealed 
With the cheers of our men. 



WORK ON THE OCEAN IN 1862. 481 

" Next morn, as the sun rose over the bay, 
Still floated our flag at the main-mast head. 
Lord, how beautiful was thy day! 
Every waft of the air 
Was a whisper of prayer, 
Or a dirge for the dead ! ' ' 

Without a pause the Merrimack turned to the Congress^ who had 
ah'eady been attacked by some wooden companions of the iron 
giant-ship. In a short time the Congress was on fire, slowly burn- 
ing down to the powder stored in the hold. Then the monster 
went on to attack the other ships lying almost under the shadow of 
Fortress Monroe. Luckily darkness came to check her all-devouring 
career, and with the certainty of more easy victories on the next day, 
the Merrimack withdrew till daylight. 

But day-break a little changed the scene. Next morning the 
Merrimack beheld a plucky little enemy beside her, dressed in a suit 
of clothes of the same material as her own. It was the United 




Engagement of Merrimack and Monitor. 



States Monitor, built in New York by Johli Ericsson, and sent just 
in time to try her hand at checking the victorious Merrimack. She 
looked hke a flat iron raft, with a round iron box or turret in the 
middle. The rebels called it a " Yankee cheese-box on a raft," and 
this was not a bad name for it. But the cheese-box had within its 
iron sides two great guns which turned round and round on a pivot, 
and could be sighted by the men inside, with almost the precision of 
a rifle. These guns could send a ball that weighed two hundred 
pounds. When the Merrimack saw this httle craft steaming up 
close by her, with nothing visible but the turret, she felt like laugh- 



482 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

iiig. But when one of those two hundred pound balls dented into 
her iron sides and shook her like the crash of a thunder-bolt, there 
was no fun in it. Goliah did not laugh after David struck him once 
with the stone from his sling. The Merrimack tried her shot on 
the Monitor, but they pattered off her iron-proof sides like hail on a 
house-roof. She ran down upon her, full force, and tried to gore her 
with her pointed beak as she had gored the Cumherlmid and Con- 
gress ; but the little craft scarcely budged under the shock and kept 
up her steady fire from those revolving guns. At last, after four 
hours of such fighting, the Merrimack retired, leaving the small 
Monitor in possession of the watery field. Cheers rose from fort 
and ships at the spectacle ; and from that time there was no more 
fear of the rebel monster, in Hampton Roads, while the " Yankee 
cheese-box " guarded the entrance there. 



CHAPTER XL. 

SHILOII, ISLAND NO. 10, AND CORINTH. 

Tlie Lof^ Meeting-house. — The Surprise. — "Drive the Yankees into the River." — Beaure- 
gard's Great Victory. — The Tide turns next Morning. — Cutting a Canal under Water. — 
Taking of Island No. 10. — The Siege of Corinth. — Beauregard's Last Strategy. — The 
Nation had found its Leader. 

The fall of Fort Donelson drove the rebels straight down 
through the State of Tennessee. Their commanding general, Al- 
bert S. Johnston, stopped his march at Corinth, a little town in the 
very northeast corner of Mississippi, only a few miles from the 
boundary of Tennessee. Here he was joined by General Beaure- 
gard, the hero of Bull Run, who came to aid him. Bishop Polk 
also came from Columbus with part of his troops, — the rest he 
had left to fortify Island No. 10 — and General Bragg, who had 
commanded the famous battery at Buena Vista in Mexico, also 
added an army freshly recruited in Mississippi and Alabama, to the 
gathering masses. By the 1st of April 40,000 rebels were in Cor- 
inth. 

Grant was closely following on Johnston's heels. He had halted 
at a point on the Tennessee River known as Pittsburg Landing, 
about twenty miles north of Corinth ; and all about this village, 
which consisted of two or three log huts on the river bank, his army 



SHILOH, ISLAND NO. 10, AND CORINTH. 



483 



lay encamped. Three miles from the river was a poor little log 
church known as " Shiloh Meeting-house," and around this church 
was posted the division of William T. Sherman, who had been sent 
to join Grant after the taking of Donelson. 

It was just before dawn on Sunday, the 6th of April. The 
Union army near Pittsburg Landing was fast asleep. Behind 
them lay the broad Tennessee River. To the right and left, wind- 
ing about their encampment, were two small rivers known as 
" Snake " and " Lick " creeks, tributaries of the large Tennessee. 
General Grant was at Savannah, ten miles distant, looking after 




Pittsburg Landing. 



•A lO V 



provisions to feed his great army. There had been some rumors 
that the enemy at Corinth meant to attack at Pittsburg Landing, 
but not much attention was paid to this report, and it seemed quite 
certain that General Carlos Buell, who was on his way with a large 
force to join Grant at Pittsburg Landing, would come up before 
serious fighting began. Therefore Grant in Savannah, and the 
Union troops in their camp on the river, slept soundly and without 
fear. 

At that very moment Johnston and Beauregard, with their army 



484 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



of 40,000, lay hid in the encirchng wood about the Union camp. 
They had marched swiftly and secretly from Corinth, through rain 
and mud, and at midnight had gained sight of the camp fires. 
Cold and weary they lay on the ground, not daring to light fires to 
dry their clothes or cook a comfortable meal, lest the smoke or the 
light should reveal their presence to Union pickets. Just as the 
gray dawn broke on Sunday, — that day which ought to bring 
peace and good-will among men, — the Union soldiers were roused 
from sleep by the wild yells which hailed the rebel attack. In a 
moment all was hurr}^ and confusion in Sherman's camp, where the 
alarm began. His pickets made a feeble resistance, then rushed 




Pickets on Duty. 

back to give the alarm. It soon spread from camp to camp. There 
was dressing in hot haste ; no time for breakfast, or for elaborate 
toilets. By daylight the battle of Shiloh had fairly set in. 

The battle broke first on Sherman's division near the log meeting- 
house. He worked like the hero he was, and fought his ground inch 
by inch. But first Bragg, then Polk, and afterwards Johnston, 
beat upon him right and left. He was obliged to fall back nearer 
the river. 

It was eight in the morning when Grant galloped on from Savan- 
nah where he had heard the firing. He sent post haste to hurry up 
General Buell, who he knew could not be far away, and another ex- 



SHILOII, ISLAND NO. 10, AND CORINTH. 485 

press was sent to General Lew. Wallace, who was at a landing up 
the river with 5,000 men. If he could hold out till reinforcements 
came up. Grant did not despair. 

The enemy fought hard to drive the Unionists to the river. 
There was not a boat to take them over. In case worse came to 
the worst, they could only have fought to the brink and then they 
must either drown or surrender. Beauregard, riding up and down 
his ranks, repeated again and again this order, " Drive the Yankees 
into the Tennessee." 

For hours the battle raged, the Union troops all the time pressed 
backwards. But the banks of the river just here were high and 
ridgy. The Union troops had mounted guns on this crest, and with 
them held back the rebel advance. To keep this ridge was their 
only hope of resistance. 

At three in the afternoon the rebel General Albert Sydney John- 
ston, riding in front of his troops, felt a twinge in his leg where a 
rifle ball had entered. " It is nothing but a flesh wound," he said, 
riding on. Ten minutes later he turned to his aid, deadly pale and 
almost fainting, " I fear I am mortally wounded," he said, brokenly. 
Then stretching out his arms to his companion, he fell from his 
horse, dead. His loss was a serious one to the South. He was one 
of their ablest commanding generals. Still with victory so near 
them as it seemed at that hour, his loss could not alter the chances. 
His body was borne quietly from the field and the fight went on. 

As darkness fell, Beauregard gave orders for his men to suspend 
battle for the night. That morning he had pointed to the tents, 
where our army lay, unconscious of the near danger, and said to his 
officers. "Gentlemen, we will sleep to-night in the enemy's camp." 
He was right. The whole Union lines had fallen back so far from 
their position that the conquering rebels held their camping ground 
of the night previous. If he had gone on with the battle, in spite of 
growing darkness, he might perhaps have pushed the Union troops 
to the river and forced them to " surrender or drown." 

That night Beauregard sat in his tent till after midnight, writ- 
ing the report of the " glorious victory of the Confederate Army." 
While he wrote, the fresh troops of General Buell, who had been 
hurrying up to join Grant the previous day, were arriving, regiment 
after regiment, brigade after brigade. General Lew. Wallace, with 
his 5,000 men, was also in camp, after a hard march the afternoon 
previous. When Monday morning dawned there was an army of 



486 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

50,000 Unionists at Sbiloh, ready to regain what they had lost the 
day before. Beauregard's army had dwindled, by the killed, 
wounded, and missing, in Sunday's fight, to hardly more than 30,000. 
While he wrote in proud security of victory, the tables were ready 
to be turned upon him. 

The battle of the second day began when these masses of fresh 
soldiers were hurled against the rebels, already worn by the hard 
fight of the first day ; a less soldierly eye than that of Beauregard 
could have foreseen the issue. He made a gallant show of resist- 
ance, but fell back constantly. At noon, he ordered a retreat 
towards the stronghold at Corinth. On Monday afternoon Grant's 
banners fluttered victorious over the Battle-field of Shiloh. 
I have told you that the end of the rebel lines at Columbus fell back 
to Island No. 10, an island in the Mississippi, just where the river 
makes a double curve between Kentucky and Arkansas. This 
island had been strongly fortified. The town of New jNIadrid, lying- 
opposite in Arkansas, was also guarded by rebel forces under the 
famous guerrilla chieftain, Jeff. Thompson. Rebel batteries, planted 
up and down on both sides of the river, were ready to sweep vessels 
coming down the stream, and a fleet of gun-boats lying off New 
Madrid lent their aid in making this point in the river impassable. 
While Grant was lying at Pittsburg Landing awaiting the battles 
of Shiloh, which broke up the centre of the rebel lines as effectually 
as it had been before • broken up at Donelson, General John 
Pope, who had been generalling in Missouri since the war began, 
was proceeding to take Island No. 10. 

The fii-st thing Pope did was to drive Jeff. Tliompson away from 
New Madrid and take possession with his army. This was not a 
work of much time. Thompson saw that it was not a place that he 
could hold, and accordingly he took advantage of a dark night, and a 
tremendous thunder-storm, and landed all his troops on the island, 
leaving Pope to come peaceably into his desired head-quarters. 

Just about this time Commodore Foote, who had been in Cairo 
repairing his vessels, battered in the attack on Donelson, appeared 
on the scene of action. Eighteen gun-boats, all made as good as 
new, prepared to pound away with their cannon and mortar-guns on 
Island No. 10. 

The attack was begun March 16th, and promised to be slow busi- 
ness. The batteries along the shore answered back Foote's firing. 
The days went by till April, and still the island remained appar- 



SHILOH, ISLAND NO. 10, AND CORINTH. 



487 



ently as strong as ever. Pope, at his headquarters in New Madrid, 
was all the time chafing with impatience at his inability to hasten 
on affairs. One morning Gen. Hamilton of his army came to him 
with a brilliant suggestion. He proposed to cut a canal straight 
across a swampy tongue of land jutting out into the river opposite 
the island, through which gun-boats would pass out of reach of 
shore or island batteries, get down below No. 10, and so attack it in 
front and rear at once. The plan was at once acted on. In nine- 
teen days the soldiers, commanded by the army engineers, had cut 
a canal twelve miles long, through the swampy peninsula, covered 
with trees which had to be sawed by hand four feet under water. 




Building the Cana 



On the 5th of April the enemy saw a fleet coming up from below, 
upon their defenses. Already several of their shore batteries had 
been silenced. They saw that Island No. 10 was as good as taken, 
and resolved to save themselves by instant flight. Pope heard of 
this intention, and hastened down below to cut off their retreat. 
The fugitives, hemmed in by the river on one hand, the swamps on 
the other. Pope's army in front and their deserted stronghold in the 
rear, could do nothing but surrender. Nearly 7,000 men were taken 
prisoners without striking a blow. The same day the rebels remain- 
ing on the island sent a flag to Commodore Foote, and the place was 
in his hands when Pope returned. This happened on the 8th of 
April, the day after the victory at Shiloh. 



488 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Pope went immediately over to join Grant's army, who had begun 
the siege of Corinth, where Beauregard had retreated from Shiloh. 
There the rebels liad built, or pretended to build, another set of im- 
pregnable fortresses. General Halleck, who had come down from 
Missouri to take the chief command, was very cautious about moving 
upon the enemy's works. Grant, Pope, and Sherman were all in 
front of Corinth, waiting the order from Halleck to attack. But 
although there was some skirmishing and a constant advance, over a 
month slipped by, and the town was not taken. On the night of 
May 30th a terrible explosion was heard in Corinth. The soldiers 
in the Union camp could see clouds of smoke rolling into the air. 
Sherman was ordered forward to look oat for the enemy and see 
what they were doing. He found Corinth empty. The rebels had 
decamped again. For days Beauregard had been sending his most 
valuable stores away south to Mobile. He had gone with his army 
to Tupelo, a place commanding the railway lines to Mobile and New 
Orleans. He began to feel that it was important to be near the 
railway in case of further retreat. This was Beauregard's last 
strategy, however. Jefferson Davis, who was at Richmond making 
believe that he was president of a " great and glorious country," 
was tired of him. He took advantage of his temporary illness to 
put General Bragg in his place, and the star of Beauregard, who 
was really a very able military man, went down beloAV the horizon. 
The rebels fought no more battles with him for a leader. 

After Pope left for Corinth, Commodore Foote with those inde- 
fatigable gun-boats proceeded down the river to take Memphis, 
where Jeff. Thompson, who had got away from the siege of 
No. 10, had made another stand. There were a few small 
obstacles along the river in the way of forts and batteries, but Foote 
proceeded slowly, taking these by the way, in the same deliberate, 
matter of course way in which he would eat his dinner. Fort Pil- 
low was taken with the most difficulty, and caused him the delay of 
a week or two. But wh'en, on the 6th day of June, he arrived at 
Memphis, the rebels had again fled, and there was nothing to do 
but anchor the gun-boats in the river and march the troops into the 
city. Thus the first half of the year 1862 ended. In those six 
months Henry and Donelson had been taken; the rebel line had 
again been broken at Shiloh ; Island No. 10 had been captured, and 
the Mississippi was free of obstruction as far south as Memphis. 

The Union troops, under General Mitchell, were scouring Ala- 



CArTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 



489 



bama, setting up our flag there. In these six months the rebels had 
been driven through the States of Kentucky and Tennessee ; our 
armies had got a foot-hold in Alabama and Mississippi, and events 
looked bright for the full possession of the great inland river of the 
West. At length the nation seemed to have found a military leader 
in Ulysses S. Grant, to whom the honor of these victories princi- 
pally belonged. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

Ship Island. — Ailmiral Farragiit. — Biniain Wood. — A Huge Fire ^louster. — Cutting away 
the Barriers. — Passing the Forts. — The Levee at New Orleans. — A Bombastic Major. — 
Temper of the Citizens. — Wliat " Beast Butler " did in New Orleans. 

After General Butler returned from his expedition to Hatteras 
Inlet, he went to Washington to ask what he could do next. Talk- 
ing one day with Edwin M. Stanton, the secretary of war, the ques- 
tion was asked, " Why cannot New Orleans be taken ? " " It 
can," answered General Butler briefly and emphatically. 

Butler was a man who could almost make other men believe that 
possibilities were certainties. The next thing we hear of him after 




Firt MiobichuseUs on Ship Island 

his talk with Stanton, is that he commanded an expedition to cap- 
ture New Orleans. In February, 18G2, he started from Hampton 
Roads in the steamship Mississippi. The purpose for which he 
sailed was carefully concealed fi'om the public. 

Ship Island is a low-lying strip of land, hardly high enough to 



490 STOEY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

keep its head above water in stormy seasons, which forms one of a 
group on the Mississippi coast. It looks Uke a strip of white beach 
that has floated off the shore. Nothing grows there except a few 
stunted pine-trees on one end of the ishind. When General Butler 
reached there in March, 1862, it looked as if the white sand had 
just yielded a crop of white tents, thickly dotting the island. They 
were the camp-tents of General Phelps, who, with 6,000 men, 
was eagerly waiting his arrival. 

At Ship Island Butler was joined by Admiral Farragut, one of 
the oldest, as well as one of the youngest men in the United States 
navy. He was one of the oldest, because it was fifty-two years 
since he had joined the United States navy, then a boy midship- 
man, eleven years old. He was one of the youngest, because there 
was not a boy in the fleet more light and agile, quick-footed and 
quick in all action than he. Admiral Farragut and General Butler 
shook hands, and proceeded to talk about the capture of New 
Orleans. 

New Orleans, as 3'ou know, is on the Mississippi, a little more 
than one hundred miles from the place where the great river tears 
through the land in five different places and plunges into the Gulf. 
Every approach to New Orleans by land had been carefully forti- 
fied. The approach up the river was guarded by two forts opposite 
each other, thirty miles from the river mouths, and seventy-five 
from the city. They were Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, both 
very strong and well garrisoned. To take New Orleans by the 
river, our ships must either take these forts by bombardment, or 
pass them under the constant fire of their guns. Let us see what 
Farragut did. 

He took plenty of time to get ready. There were forty-eight 
vessels in all, carrying three hundred and ten guns. Think what a 
noise that fleet would make when all those guns were in action ! 
These ships were guarded, many of them, with an armor of chains, 
skillfully interlaced over the ship's sides to protect her from balls, 
much as a knight of did was protected by his armor. The wood 
work was painted a dull brown, to make it undistinguishable from 
the muddy river water. Others of the vessels had their sides coated 
Avith the reeds that bordered the river, so that they looked, as they 
lay along the banks, almost like a part of the sliore. Just above 
Fort Jackson the bank was thickly wooded, and some of the vessels 
had trees lashed to their rigging to simulate the forest. As they 



CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 491 

steamed slowly up the river they must have looked like Macduff's 
army when it marched to Dunsinane with the branches of Birnam 
wood on its shoulders. 

On the 17th of April twenty-one mortar steamers, led by Com- 
modore Porter, started up the river to bombard Fort Jackson. 
They were met at tlie first by a huge fire-monster which came 
slowly floating down into the middle of their fleet. It was a raft 
piled high with wood soaked in turpentine, and set on fire. A boat 
from the fleet pushed out boldly, threw grappling irons on the mon- 
ster, and towed her to shore out of reach of the Union vessels. 
There she burned slowly to the water's edge, a magnificent bonfire. 
On the 18th, the bombardment began. Fort Jackson was a little 
lower down than Fort St. Philip, and the first attack fell upon it. 
From vessels and fort, crossing each other in the air, came cannon- 
ball and bomb-shell, with smoke, a flash, and then a roar, that 




Ram attacking Union Vessel below New Orleans. 

seemed to shake the solid earth to its foundations. " Combine all 
you ever heard of thunder with all you ever saw of lightning," said 
one of the officers who was in the bombardment, " and you will 
have a faint idea of the scene." 

For three days the gun-boats kept up the bombardment, and there 
were no signs of yielding in the fort. " Whatever is done must be 
done quickly," said Farragut. " The forts must be run, and the 
fleet be brought to New Orleans. Then our troops can attack the 
strongholds in the rear, and take them by assault." But there was 
an obstacle to a passage up the river even more formidable than the 
cannon that swept it from the two fortresses. Several schooners 
were strongly anchored at intervals, all the way across the river. 
Over these vessels, wound firmly round the capstan of each, a strong 



492 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

chain-cable passed from shore to shore, forming an impassable bar- 
rier. This cable must be removed before the Union fleet could pass 
up to New Orleans. In the darkness of night, two of the gun-boats 
were sent to cut the cable. With hammer and chisel, under cover 
of the night, they worked away till the chain parted, and the hulks 
on which it was supported swept down the current, leaving the 
way clear. 

Farragut divided the fleet going up the river into three parts. 
One division was to hug the shore on the side of Fort St. Philip, 
and fire into it in passing; the second was to go up the middle of 
the river and watch for rebel gun-boats sent from New Orleans ; 
the third, with Farragut at their head, in his flag-ship Hartford^ 
was to go under the walls of Jackson on the left bank. 

It was one o'clock in the morning when the three lines started 
in single file up the river. For five miles they would be exposed 
to the enemy's fire. As soon as the vessels began their stately 
march, first Jackson and then St. Philip opened on them. Cannon- 



III': ' "^■"I'.J.Iii'B'tt 




Levee at New Orleans. 



ball, bomb-shell, and grape-shot answered back from the fleet. 
There was no light but that from the battle, but the quick firing 
kept the river in a glow. Now and then, too, great fire-rafts came 
floating down among the fleet, shedding a terrible illumination on 
the scene. Once Farragut's ship, the Hartford, was set all ablaze 
with one of these, but was speedily put out before the flames had 
done much damage. When the ships had passed the forts, they 
were met by a fleet of gun -boats stretched across the stream to op- 
pose the passage. The vessels made quick work of these. Eleven 
of them were destroyed in half an hour, and could be seen, riddled 
and dismantled hulks, drifting down the river. 



CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 493 

On the morning of the 24th of April seventeen vessels steamed 
up to the levee in New Orleans to demand the surrender of the city. 
The people had not believed the town could be taken. They had 
feasted and danced, given parties and balls, gone to the theatres 
as usual, all the time Farragut's fleet was bombarding the forts. 
Pleasure parties had come down the river to look on the bombard- 
ment from a safe distance, as a pretty sight that could not result in 
harm to their city. When they heard that Farragut was coming up 
the stream, a panic seized the citizens. The streets were filled with 
an excited crowd. General Lovell, commanding the rebel troops, 
decided at once to remove from the city, and leave it to the civil 
authorities. The citizens, with their own hands, put the torch to 
the piles of cotton on the levee, and it was amid the smoke and 
flame of this burning that Farragut anchored. Many voices cried, 
"Burn the city," and women offered to light the fires which would 
consume their homes. But better counsels prevailed, and the city 
was left standing. 

In the mean time, as soon as Farragut had passed the forts and 
was safely on his way up the river, Butler embarked his troops in 
small boats to enter the creeks and bayous that led round to the 
rear of St. Philip, that he might take it by a desperate assault. 
But this bloodshed was saved. The men in the fort had mutinied, 
believing defense was impossible, and our first detachment of troops 
was met by a large party who had spiked the cannon and came out 
to surrender. 

New Orleans had a fiery mayor whose name was John T. Monroe. 
He should have been called Bombastes Furioso. When Farragut 
asked him to haul down the flag of secession from over the United 
States buildings in New Orleans, he answered in the strain of Bom- 
bastes, "The man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would 
not be paralyzed at the mere thought of such an act," and much 
more to that effect. On which the admiral sent a company on 
shore, who hoisted the American flag on the United States Mint, 
where it waved as if it had never been pulled down from thence. 

At this juncture came news that the forts below w^ere in our 
hands. This was the last blow to the hopes of the rebels, of New 
Orleans, and they submitted sullenly to the entrance of General 
Butler and his troops. New Orleans was taken, and all the valuable 
property of the United States so long in the hands of the rebels, 
was restored to the government. 



494 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Butler at once took military command. The city streets over- 
flowed with an angry mob whose muttermgs filled the whole air. 
They glared upon him and upon the United States soldiers with the 
glare of beasts. The women were even more bitter than the men. 
They crossed to the middle of the street that they might not pass an 
officer or a soldier of the United States. They openly reviled the 
flag of their country. They lost no opportunity of insulting, by a 
great show of contempt, all those who wore the aniform of the gov- 
ernment. Once, two women, dressed like ladies, spit in the face of 
an unoffending soldier, in the public street. Butler never took half 
way measures. He fought treason and insult with their own weap- 
ons. He sent the most stubborn cases to the fort in which traitors 
were confined as prisoners of war. He enforced an outward show of 
respect to the government. He insisted that the flag and its soldiers 
should not be publicly insulted. By the measures he took to keep 
order, he drew down upon himself the bitterest hatred of those most 
devoted to the cause of rebellion. " Beast Butler" was the name he 
gained all over the South. A reward of $10,000 was offered for his 
head. No other man was hated as he was, by the secessionists. 

All the time Butler showed himself an excellent manager. He 
cleaned the streets of New Orleans as they were never cleaned 
before. " If the Yankees do not know anything else, they know 
how to clean streets," owned one of the hostile newspapers. He 
took such health measures that the yellow fever, the yearly scourge 
of the city, was kept away. He organized a system of relief by 
which the starving poor were fed, and kept comfortable. He did all 
these things without costing the government a penny. Indeed, he 
sent to Washington a sum of money, the product of the crops he had 
saved by his good management. All this he did from May until 
December, 1862, when General Nathaniel P. Banks was sent to take 
his place as military ruler of New Orleans. 

Butler was not a mild ruler of the rebellious people of New 
Orleans. He believed with all his soul in putting down rebellion, 
and he hated secession as bad as secessionists hated the government. 
War is not mild or amiable under any aspect. And the soldier who 
does not hesitate or temporize is the man who is likely soonest to 
bring about peace. Stonewall Jackson, one of the ablest generals 
in the Southern army was strongly in favor of giving no quarter to 
the Yankee soldiers in his battles. He said this would be the truest 
humanity, and in the end would save bloodshed, because it would 



PENINSULAK CAMPAIGN. 495 

shorten the contest.^ He was overruled in this, but believed to his 
death that an entire slaughter of his foes, even after their surrender, 
was the true policy. 

None of the Northern generals favored such a sanguinary course. 
But Butler was almost as uncompromising as Jackson. He believed 
that when the nation was engaged in a life and death struggle for 
existence, the time for mild measures was past. 

I have told you that Butler was never an antislavery man, but a 
strong defender of the rights of the South to her peculiar institution. 
Years before the war, Harriet Beecher Stowe of Massachusetts had 
written a book called " Uncle Tom's Cabin," in which the horrors 
of slavery were depicted so strongly that the whole civilized world 
read the book with shuddering and tears. General Butler had 
regarded this book with contempt, as a highly colored, overdrawn 
picture of Southern servitude. But when he left New Orleans in 
the year 1862, this is what he said : — 

" I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears, 
many things in slavery which go as much beyond Mrs. Stowe's book, 
as her book goes beyond an ordinary school-girl novel." 



CHAPTER XLH. 

PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 



Quiet on tlie Potomac. — Quaker Guns. — Transportation of an Army. — On to Richmond. — 
Death in the Swamps. — Norfolk taken by General Wool. — Stonewall Jackson in Western 
Virginia. — Seven Days' Retreat. — Discouragement of the President. 

Through January and February the Army of the Potomac still 
remained quiet. The country chafed under this quietude. The 
men and money which had been poured out so lavishly to retrieve 
tlie disaster at Bull Run seemed like water poured through a sieve. 
Wasting in inaction the army lay in Virginia while rebel banners 
still waved under the eyes of the government at Washington. 

President Lincoln, who was by the Constitution the commander- 
in-chief of the whole army, insisted on an advance. The rebels 
were still at Manassas. If ever any army could take that post, 
should it not be that army nearly two hundred thousand strong- 
lying idle on the Potomac ? At last, after all this weary delay, an 

1 See Southern biography of Jackson by Dabney. 
32 



496 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




Quaker Gun, 



advance was ordered by McClellan. Our troops reached Manassas 
the 8th day of March to find it empty. For days General Joseph 

Johnston, who had taken com- 
mand when Beauregard left for 
Tennessee, had been carefully 
moving away from Manassas. 
When their fortifications were 
examined, it was found that some 
of the cannon which had held 
back the Union army were made 
of logs, with a black spot painted 
in the sawed end to simvilate 
the cannon's mouth. In one 
place an old stove-pipe had done 
duty as a gun. A cry of rage and disappointment went up all over 
the country as these "Quaker guns " were found to be part of the 
tremendous batteries of the rebel stronghold. 

If Richmond could be taken, such a blow would be given to the 
rebellion as would virtually put an end to the war. So the North 
believed, and the loyal people anxiously awaited McClellan's long 
promised march to Richmond. That general who had such ability 
at keeping his plans to himself that many people doubted whether 
he had any plans at all, at length began to develop signs of a move- 
ment on Richmond by Avater. In March he transported an army 
of 121,000 men to Fortress Monroe. He moved them with great 
skill and a,bility, with all the innumerable wagons, provisions, 
ammunition, clothing, tents, and other necessaries that form the 
outfit of such an immense army. From the fortress, this great 
military caravan took up its march upon Yorktown, the very spot 
where Cornwallis had surrendered in 1781. 

Yorktown lay on that swampy stretch of land lying between the 
York and James rivers, which is known as the " Peninsula," and 
this campaign of the Army of the Potomac is known as the " Pe- 
ninsular campaign." It was early in April when the army arrived 
there, and for more than a month a bloodless siege was kept up be- 
fore Yorktown, where the enemy were supposed to be in full force. 
On the 4th of May it was discovered that the enemy had run away 
in the night, in the same clever way in which he had run away at 
Manassas, leaving only a few guns and the useless fortifications to 
General McClellan. 



PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 497 

General Stoneman was sent in pursuit of the enemy, and caught 
up with a portion of them under General Longstreet, at Williams- 
burg. The main body of the rebel army had reached Richmond. 
There was a smart fight at Williamsburg. The Union General 
Joseph Hooker, who was known as "fighting Joe Hooker," bore 
the brunt of the battle. There was really no decisive victory 
gained by either side, although it was a costly battle. We lost 
more than 2,000 men, without any result to our arms. After it 
was over the rebels continued their march towards Richmond. Our 
army followed to the banks of the Chickahominy, a small stream 
flowing between the York River and Richmond. 

Those of us who lived in these sad days can never forget the dark 
months in which our army lay on the banks of the Chickahominy 
River. It was a sluggish, muddy stream, with swampy borders, 
from which poisonous vapors rose under the heat of the summer sun. 
The army were set at once to digging trenches and building out- 
works as a defense against their foes at Richmond. The men, 
forced to dig all day in the sun, and encamped by night on the damp 
ground, fell victims to all forms of murderous malaria. "They died 
as fast as if a plague had raged," said one of the army physicians. 
It was a sad sight to see this noble army melting awa}^, day by 
day. 

The only encouraging event that had happened after the Moyiitor 
had driven the Merrimack clear out of Hampton Roads, was an ex- 
ploit of old General Wool, who had been stationed at Fortress Mon- 
roe since Butler was sent to New Orleans. He had been asking 
for permission to go on an expedition against Norfolk, where early 
in the war our navy-yard had been seized and was still held by 
the rebels. Norfolk was the lurking place of the iron ram Merri- 
mack, and was a valuable point to the enemy. 

In March General Wool got the long wished for permission, and 
sent down his gun-boats and troops to take the place. As on so 
many other occasions when they saw a force approaching, the rebels 
had evacuated, and on the evening of March 10th General Wool's 
troops marched into Norfolk, Before the rebels left they blew up 
the Merrimack, and the remains of that formidable war ship were 
sinking in the harbor when the Unionists took possession. This 
was something good to remember, while events looked so dark on 
the Peninsula. 

Johnston, with his army at Richmond, finding that McClellan 



498 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

did not come to attack him there, came out to attack McClellan. 
They met in the battle of Fair Oaks, Avhich, like most of the other 
battles on the Peninsula, was not favorable to the Unionists. John- 
ston was wounded here, and after the battle the rebels all fell back 
to Richmond again. It was said that Jefferson Davis himself rode 
out and led in a charge at Fair Oaks. He might have done that, for 
he had proved himself a good soldier in Mexico, years before. 

Robert E. Lee, who had been growing more and more in favor 
with the rebels, was made general-in-chief of their armies after 
Johnston's wound rendered him unfit for command. Stonewall 
Jackson, who had been pressing General Banks and General Fre- 
mont in western Virginia, was now called to join Lee at Richmond, 
and aid in driving the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula. 
There were few abler generals in the war than General Stonewall 
Jackson, on eitlier side. All through May he had been making 
havoc among our armies in West Virginia. He had held Banks in 
check, preventing him from doing any good to the cause, and had 
di'iven Fremont and his army out of the Shenandoah Valley. The 
government in Washington, poorly guarded, and trembling lest Mc- 
Clellan's army should be cut off from the capital, feared the name 
of Stonewall Jackson. His campaign in the spring of 1862 had 
been one of the most brilliant of the war on either side. 

For almost a month after the battle of Fair Oaks, our army kept 
on dying in the swamps of the Cliickahominy, while General Mc- 
Clellan decided whether or not he would retreat to the James River. 
The enemy helped him to make up his mind, by coming out again 
to attack hjm. They came up with the national aruiy at Mechan- 
icsville, and a battle was fought there on the 26tl), which was fol- 
lowed by McClellan's order next day to retreat towards the James 
River. Then began an epoch which is known as the " Seven Days' 
retreat." For a week, a battle was fought almost daily, the great 
Army of the Potomac retreating all the time towards the river, upon 
whose banks they were ordered to fall back. From the 26th of 
June till the 1st of July the fighting and the retreat kept up. On 
the morning of the 1st the Union army was on Malvern Hill, a high 
ridge of land sloping towards the James. Here for the last time, 
Lee attacked, late in the hot summer afternoon. The rebels were 
driven back when darkness fell, broken and disabled by the fight. 
The Unionists exulted over a victory, and man}^ officers believed 
that even Richmond might yet be Avon, if a decisive blow followed 



INVASION; OF MAIIYLAND. 499 

that of Malvern Hill. To their disappointment, General MeClellan 
ordered the retreat continued, and on the 3d of July the remnant 
of the army was at Harrison's Landing on the banks of the James. 
Of the Army of the Potomac that had at one time been swelled to 
160,000, MeClellan reported to President Lincoln that he had only 
60,000 men left. The '■'■ Peninsular campaign " had been a great 
Moloch, that had swallowed its prey by thousands upon thousands. 

President Lincoln came at once to Harrison's Landing to talk 
with MeClellan. Discouraged, almost heart-broken by these long 
series of failures, the president ordered the army to come back and 
guard Washington, for whose safety much alarm had been felt. 
MeClellan returned, slowly and reluctantly, and took command of 
the Washington defenses. General Halleck was called from Mis- 
souri to the seat of government, and was made general-in-cliief of 
the armies. Lee, satisfied with driving the Union army from its 
position before Richmond, returned to that city to be hailed by the 
rebels as a conquering hero. 



CHAPTER XLHL 

INVASION OF MARYLAND. 

Pope takes Command. — More Defeats. — Maryland! my Maryland! — Entrance into Fred- 
erick. — Barbara Friefcliie. — Tiirougli the Mountain-gap. — McCellan makes haste. — The 
Antietam Creek. — Figiiting Joe Hooker. — The Battle. — Lee's Retreat. — Burnside made 
Commander. ^- Ruins of Fredericksburg. 

After General Pope's success on the Mississippi, he was called 
to take command in Virginia. He was given the three armies com- 
manded by Fremont, Banks, and McDowell. As Fremont had 
been a superior officer, he did not choose to serve under Pope, and 
was accordingly relieved, and his command given to Sigel, the 
brave German who had done such s^ood fishtino- in Missouri. All 
mustered, Pope's whole army numbered about 40,000 men. This 
army lay across Virginia from Frederickburg to Harper's Ferry, 
then west to Winchester, in the pleasant valley of the Shenandoah. 
It was an outer girdle of defense guarding Washington, where 
MeClellan was again bringing into order the remnant of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

Lee, who had been so long on the defensive in Richmond, now 



500 



STORY OF OURS COUNTRY. 




began to show signs of an attack upon our national capital. He 
advanced his army towards Pope's lines, to beat upon them and 
force them back. If he could invade Washington, 
drive President Lincoln from the seat of govern- 
ment, that would be a victory worth having. 

I am sorry that I cannot write of Pope's successes 
in his new field. He had done so well in the West 
that great things were hoped of him, and, unfor- 
tunately, he made a good many boasts of what he 
was going to do. He reminds one a good deal of 
Gates in Revolutionary times, when, after his success 
in New York, he came to the Carolinas and talked 
loudly about " Burgoyning the armies of Cornwallis." 
But all this summer and fall defeat seemed to cover 
with a pall the track of our arms in Virginia. 
The armies of Pope and Lee met in a bloody, 
deadly battle on Cedar Mountain, sometimes 
called Slaughter's Mount. The latter name 
would suit the place best, for the 
sun set on a scene of slaughter such 
as I should pray it might never i 
look on again. Both sides claimed J; 
the victory, but if victory rested 
on either side, it was probably with 
the rebels. This was August 8th. 
During the next three weeks three 
more battles were fought at Grove- 
ton, Bull Run, and Chantilly. The 
Bull Run battle raged on the 
banks of the same stream, across 

which the Union army had fled in such panic, early in the war. 
It was an unlucky place to us. The second Bull Run battle was 
also a defeat, though much less disgraceful than the first. On the 
1st of September the Army of Virginia was also recalled to Wash- 
ington, as broken and dispirited as the Army of the Potomac on its 
recall from the Peninsula. The two armies were again blended 
into one, with General McClellan in command. The soldiers, who 
had always had a great affection for McClellan — " Little Mac," they 
called him — received him again as their commander with great 
delight. As he rode along their lines they threw up their hats and 
shouted for joy. 




War Balloon. 



INVASION OF MAR^XAND. 



501 



Very greatly satisfied with his success in the contest witli Pope, 
General Lee turned to invade Maryland. He was not yet quite 
ready to attack Washington, and he concluded to try what he 
could do in Maryland in enlisting soldiers for his army. A rebel 
song, sung all over the South, had this verse : — 

" I hear the distant thunder hum, 
jNIaryland ! 
The Old Luie's bugle, fife, and drum, 
Maryland ! 
' She is not dead, or deaf, or dumb ; 

Huzza ! she spurns the Northern scum ! 
She breathes — she burns ! she 'II come ! she '11 come ! 
Maryland ! my Maryland ! " 

But although Lee's soldiers marched to this music, yet Maryland 
did not come, and in fact refused very unequivocally to have any- 
thing to do with rebellion. Perhaps the appearance of Lee's army 
would have damped the ardor of the warmest rebel. They were the 
raggedest set of poor fellows, — in butternut-colored homespun 
cloth, that ever marched behind a leader. Many of them had no 
shoes or hats, many were coatless, and Stonewall Jackson himself, 
so famous as a general, looked almost as dirty and ragged as one of 
his men. The heart aches in viewing these miserable, misguided 
adherents of a bad cause, laying 
down their lives to establish a 
government which they had 
boasted should have human slav- 
ery " for its corner-stone." 

When Jackson entered the 
town of Frederick, some of the 
Union people, frightened at his 
coming, had made haste to pull 
down the stars and stripes. There 
was one loyal old woman named 
Barbara Frietchie, however, who 
was resolved not to disgrace her 
flag in that way. When the 
steady tread of the soldiers marched down the street, her flag floated 
from an attic window. But John G. Whittier, our good old' poet, 
tells the story best. I will give it to you in his words. 

" Down the street came the rebel tread, 
Stonewall Jackson marchinor ahead. 




Barbara Frietchie 



502 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

" Under his slouched h;it, left and right 
He glanced ; the old flag met his sight. 

' ' Halt ! The dust brown ranks stood fast. 
Fire ! Out blazed the rifle blast. 

" It shivered the window, pane and sash, 
It rent the banner with seam and gash. 

" Quick as it fell from the broken staff, 
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf. 

" She leaned far out on the window-sill. 
And shook it forth with a royal will. 

" ' Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, 
, But spare your country's flag,' she said." 

It is not often that treason gets so wholesome a rebuke as it got 
that day from the Hps of this gray-haired old woman. 

Discouraged by his success in recruiting in Maryland, Lee began 
a new line of march. Not strong enough to attack Washington 
„ - directly, he planned to go up 

into Pennsylvania and draw 
McClellan with his army up to 
the defense of this Northern 
State. After McClellan's ad- 
vance had uncovered Washing- 
ton, and left it defenseless, he 
would go back and possess the 
national seat of government. 

He therefore divided his army, 
and sent part of his men un- 

Barbara Frietchies House. der StOUeWall JacksOU, tO take 

Harper's Ferry, — first made famous by John Brown's raid, — 
while he went west through Maryland into northern Virginia, and 
so across the hne into Pennsylvania. It was very evident to a clever 
soldier, that Lee never would have divided his army in this way, 
in the enemy's own country, if he had any very gi'eat fear of his 
antagonists. But so far, the rebels had had it very much their own 
way in the Virginia campaign. They had beaten two armies back 
behind their defenses at Washington, and Lee was getting a little 
reckless from success. Back he marched over the mountains, in 




INVvVSION OF MARYLAND. 503 

Western Maryland, down which his army had moved in their march 
to Frederick. There were two passes, called Turner's Gap and 
Crampton's Gap, in the range through which he was to march west- 
ward ; and the 14th day of September found him just marching 
through these gaps, to the other side of South Mountain. Just 
beyond was the Potomac, dividing Maryland from Virginia. Once 
across into Virginia, he would be joined by Jackson, who would 
probably by that time have taken Harper's Ferry, and be ready to 
carry his victorious banners into the hated State of Pennsylvania. 
And then what might not his armies do with all the prestige they 
had gained ? Even Washington might be disdained as too easy a 
prize. They might march to New York city itself, — reinforced by 
more soldiers, who could pour up through the Shenandoah Valley, 
after Harper's Ferry was taken, and join his march. It had been 
predicted that blood should flow like water in the streets of the 
great metropolis of our nation, that grass should grow on the 
unused paving-stones of Broadway, after its conniierce had been 
destroyed by waste of Southern cotton. While from Bunker Hill, 
hallowed in the eyes of Bostonians, Robert Tombs had boasted he 
would call the roll of his slaves in the ears of that accursed city of 
abolitionists. Many hearts in the domains of rebellion beat high 
with hope that all these things were to be realized, when Lee 
marched, in that pleasant September weather, over the hills of 
Maryland. 

In the mean time, McClellan made haste from Washington, with 
his army at his back, when the news came that Lee was at Frederick. 
On reaching Frederick, he found the town empty of the invaders. 
But he found there a slip of paper which an impatient rebel gen- 
eral had thrown under his feet in a fit of ill-temper. It was Lee's 
private order, showing, in clearest black and white, his whole plan of 
the Pennsylvania invasion. 

It had been one of McClellan 's faults as a general that he could 
not make haste to do anything, and this had lost him good oppor- 
tunities heretofore. But on this occasion he hurried. He followed 
on Lee's track as fast as any one could reasonably supj^ose so large 
an army could follow, and caught up with him just as I^ee's troops 
were ready to cross through the two mountain gaps into the valley 
beyond. Here McClellan also divided his army, sending General 
Burnside to Turner's Gap, and General Franklin to Crampton's 
Gap. These two passes were only a few miles apart, and once 
passed, the army was but six miles from Harper's Ferry. 



504 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Nearly all day on the 14tli of September there was a hot contest 
for the possession of these mountain passes, the rebels in their 
superior position holding back the Union armj^, who largely out- 
numbered them. At night the rebels fell back beyond the mount- 
ain, and when the next day dawned, McClellan marched through 
unimpeded, except by the dead and dying bodies which Lee had 
left in his retreat. When the Union army reached the valley on 
the morning of September 15th, the cessation of the cannon firing in 
the direction of Harper's Ferry warned McClellan that the place 
had been surrendered. In a few hours Jackson would be on the 
way to Lee's army. The struggle was near at hand. 

Both armies were in the lovely valley, stretching to the banks of 
the Potomac, made greenly fertile by Antietam Creek, which flowed 
into the Potomac a few miles south of the place where Lee halted. 




The rebel commander had crossed this creek, and with that stream 
in front, and the Potomac behind him, he waited for Jackson to 
to come to his aid, and McClellan to give him battle. One end of 
his line, was in the town of Sharpsburg, his centre ran through a 
rough field where ledges of lime rock made convenient lurking 
places for sharp-shooters ; lines of timber in the rear of his army 



INVASION OF MARYLAND. 



505 



furnished good cover for batteries, stationed there to sweep his ap- 
proaching foes. 

Harper's Ferry had surrendered to Stonewall Jackson on that very 
morning. Without a moment's delay this energetic commmider 
left a small force to take charge of the town, and all the wealth of 
cannon and other valuables of war that had been captured there, 
and pushed on at once to Antietam Creek. 

Three bridges spanned this creek in front of Lee's army. The 
upper bridge had been left unguarded and open. Across this the 
corps of " fighting Joe Hooker " was sent on the 16th, prepared to 
strike a heavy blow on the left of the rebel lines. On the night of 
the 16th the two armies lay down to sleep with the knowledge that 
the inevitable battle must begin next morning. I wonder if those 
who slumbered there in their last earthly slumber felt the shadow 
of the approaching conflict more deeply than those who were to 
escape the bullet or cannon ball next day. 




Antietam Battle-field. 



Morning dawned upon the battle-field of Antietam, and the first 
streakings of light in the east were hailed by the roar of the guns. 
From dawn till dusk the two armies fought in bloody and uncertain 
fight. For an advantage gained on one side of the field by the 



506 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

national soldiers, Lee could show an equal advantage in another 
quarter. When the sun set, neither side could claim the victory, 
and the night saw both armies standing at bay, like two wild beasts 
who have tasted the blood from their own wounds, and are all the 
more eager to pursue the fight. But night cooled the ardor of 
both generals. Lee was not ready to give battle, and McClellan, 
who from excess of caution could i-arely follow up an advantage 
with rapidity, waited for more troops. The 18th passed without a 
fight, and on the night of that day Lee made good his escape over 
the Potomac. His army was broken up; his plans of campaign 
spoiled. He concluded not to g*o to Pennsylvania. From this time 
the hopes of those who longed to see Washington under the feet 
of the rebels, New York city drenched in blood, and Boston clothed 
in sackcloth, were forever dampened. However costly in human 
lives had been the battle-field of Antietam, it had gained for the 
North a sense of security it had not felt since the campaign in 
Virginia had begun. 

Lee remained in the Shenandoah Valley. To revenge himself for 
his disappointment in not reacliing Pennsylvania, he sent General 
Stuart with a troop of horsemen 12,000 or 15,000 strong to ravage 
the borders of Pennsylvania. Stuart did this with great alacity, go- 
ing as far into the State as Chambersburg, burning national works, 
tearing up railroads, and laying waste the country. 

For several weeks McClellan remained near Harper's Ferry — 
which was at once retaken and occupied by our troops — calling for 
wagons, horses, clothing, shoes, and other goods for his army. In 
return Genei-al-in-chief Halleck and President Lincoln were con- 
stantly ordering him to march against the enemy. He was so long 
in obeying these orders that his superiors got impatient, and on the 
7th of November an order reached his camp giving over liis com- 
mand to General Ambrose Burnside, who already commanded a 
corps in his army. It was the same general who had led the 
troops into North Carolina and taken Newbern the previous March. 

The order reached McClellan as the two generals were sitting 
together in camp. McClellan read it without any perceptible emo- 
tion, and handing it over to Burnside said calmly, " Well, general, 
you are to try j^our hand at managing the Army of the Potomac ! " 
So passed into obscurity one of the most notable generals of the 
war, a man better capattle of drilling and setting an army in the 
field, than almost any other commander among the Union generals, 



INVASION OF MARYLAND. 



507 



but so hampered by an excess of caution, often resembling timidity, 
that his well drilled and disciplined armies wasted in inaction. He 
lost more men by disease than by battle, and the months on the 
Peninsula were deadlier than all his defeats on the field. 

Burnside, a modest, unassuming, brave soldier, took the command 
with a great deal of distrust in his ability to manage so large a 
force. Lee was now encamped on the Rappahannock River near 
Fredericksburg, Virginia, prepared to contest any attempt of our 
army to go on to Richmond. Burnside prepared to go on and oc- 
cupy Fredericksburg, and make the town his winter head-quarters. 
But before he could reach it, it was so fortified by Lee that a fight 
for the place was inevitable. Our soldiers did wonders of work in 
preparing bridges of boats to cross the river, and building railway 




Ruins of Fredericksburg. 

bridges over which loaded trains could pass. At length, on the 11th 
of December, the attack on Fredericksburg began. It raged hotly 
till the night of the loth. When it was over the streets of the town 
were filled with smoking ruins ; walls of houses tottering to their 
fall, and black destruction everywhere. But Lee still held the 
place, and Burnside, driven up the river, waited another opportu- 
nity. His generals had lost confidence in him, however, and he did 
not attempt another battle. The last of December he led his army 
back to the old camps which it had occupied before the battle of 
Eredericksburjx. There the men built mud huts and sat down to 



508 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

spend the winter. The Union army was dispirited and despondent. 
The rebels were exultant and self-confident. ' The poorest judge of 
military matters saw that the campaign in Virginia was a dark one 
to the Union cause. With the exception of Lee's repulse from 
Maryland, and the spoiling of his plans about the Pennsylvania in- 
vasion, we had no success there during the year 1862. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 

Generals Bragg, Polk, and Hardee. — The Queen City threatened. — Southern Rhetoric. — 
Armor of the Southern Soldiers. — Rebel Spoils in Kentucky. — Battle of Corinth. — Christ- 
mas Jollity at Murfreesboro'. — Rosecrans marches on tlie Revelers. — "We fight, or die 
here." — Victory for Unionists. 

In the mean time the armies of the West were not altogether idle. 
We left the rebels down in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Beauregard 
had marched them when he gave up Corinth. General Bragg was 
in Beauregard's place at the head of the rebel army. Bragg was 
now a grizzled old man, stooped shouldered, and angtilar. A pair 
of sharp eyes under a thick brush of black eyebrows, were all that 
denoted the fiery soldier to whom Taylor had shouted at Buena 
Vista, " A little more grape, Captain Bragg." 

Bragg first moved his army to Chattanooga in Georgia, which the 
Union army showed signs of occupying. Then, when he saw Bu- 
ell's men all at work repairing railroads, and intent on marching 
slowly towards Georgia, he cut round behind them, and made a 
swift march into Kentucky. His army was in three parts ; one com- 
manded by Bishop Polk, who was a good fighter, whatever he may 
have been as a clergyman. He owned seven hundred slaves, it is 
said, which was an excellent reason for taking up his sword in aid 
of the rebellion. Another part of Bragg's army was under General 
Hardee, who had written some good military works. He had been 
educated at West Point at the expense of his country, which was 
not a good reason for deserting her and taking up arms with her 
enemies. Bragg's third division, under Kirby Smith, another West 
Point graduate, was sent ahead to northern Tennessee, while Bragg 
began operations in Kentucky. It was in early September, the same 
month of Lee's' invasion into Maryland, when Bragg ravaged Ken- 
tucky. For about six weeks he had it pretty much all to himself 



AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 509 

there. Grant was occupying northern Mississippi near Corinth, and 
Buell, who thought Bragg might be coming to retake Nashville, hur- 
ried to defend that town, and keep fast hold of the railway between 
Nashville and Louisville, down which came the bread, and meat, and 
clothing for his men. 

But Bragg, creeping all the time in a wide circle to the east, ap- 
proached Louisville. Kirby Smith meanwhile was nearing Bragg. 
On his way he defeated the Union troops at Richmond, entered 
Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, and then marched on to the bor- 
ders to threaten the city of Cincinnati. The inhabitants of the 
" Queen city" were badly frightened, and if General Lew. Wallace' 
had not been in town to organize means for defending it, there might 
have been a terrible panic. But General Wallace established mili- 
tary order there. In one day a pontoon bridge was built across the 
Ohio, over which troops for the city's defense poured into her 
streets. So thorough were the preparations, that when Kirby Smith 
reached the Ohio, he at once fell back under the friendly cover of 
darkness, and a tremendous thunder-storm, and went to join Bragg 
at Frankfort. 

On the 14th of September Bragg captured Mumfordsville, a place 
south of Louisville, where the Union army had very large supplies of 
food and clothing. All looked bright for the rebels, and they had 
hopes of soon marching to Louisville, and so cutting off the railway 
between that place and Buell's troops. 

Here General Bragg sent out a proclamation to the Kentucky 
people, which is such a very good specimen of what we have learned 
to distinguish as *' Southern rhetoric," that I must quote a little of 
it for you. 

" Kentuckians ! " says Bragg, " we have come with joyous hopes. 
Let us not depart in sorrow, as we shall, if we find you wedded in 
your choice to your present lot. If you prefer Federal rule, show 
it by your frowns, and we will return whence we came. If you 
choose rather to come within the folds of our brotherhood, then 
cheer us with the smiles of your women, and lend your willing hands 
to secure you in your heritage of liberty. 

" Women of Kentucky ! Let your enthusiasm have free rein. 
Buckle on the armor of your kindred, your husbands, sons, and broth- 
ers, and scoff with shame him who would prove recreant to his duty 
to you, his country, and his God." 

The appeal to '' buckle on armor," is a figure of speech of the 



510 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

kind in which " Southern rhetoric " is rich. At that moment the 
armor of the Southern soldier consisted of a shirt of yellowish jean, 
such as slaves had worn, and a coat of rusty gray. The lack of 
coats was often supplied by tattered bed-quilts, old pieces of carpet, 
and such other rags as the poor private could muster. Not that 
these are causes for which to despise them. It rather makes us sorry 
that men who could fight in such ragged plight, had not a better 
cause than the destruction of the country that gave them birth, and 
the continuance of human slavery. 

But Buell was at last upon his feet in pursuit of Bragg. They 
both hurried to take Louisville. Buell won the race, and got there 
in time to force Bragg to fall back southward. The rebel general 
had loaded himself with the riches of Kentucky. Her factories and 
warehouses were robbed of cloths, shoes, and all kinds of clothing 
materials. Barrels of bacon, pork, biscuit, flour, filled the wagon- 
trains in his march. The splendid horses of Kentucky curveted in 
the ranks of his cavalry, and day after day, car-load after car-load 
was sent South, carrying away the goods which had been taken from 
the State. For some of these goods the rebel general professed to 
pay in " Confederate bills," a worthless paper printed to resemble 
our bank-notes, by which they strove to keep the fiction of a gov- 
ernment alive. 

Bragg halted at the town of Perryville. Buell sent the central 
division of his army to drive him thence, and all day, on the 8th of 
October, a hard battle was fought. The Unionists met with great 
slaughter, and lost many guns. At night, however, Bragg retreated 
toward East Tennessee, leaving the Unionist to hold the worthless 
town of Perryville. Dissatisfied with General Buell's management, 
the government sent a dispatch to General Rosecrans in Grant's 
command, to come and take Buell's cammand over the Army of the 
Ohio. 

Rosecrans had first come into notice in the mountains of West 
Virginia in 1861, when he had been one of the most efficient in 
routing the enemy across the mountains beyond the Shenandoah. 
Now he was in Grant's army, and had been for several months in 
Mississippi and Alabama, doing good work there. On the iMh of 
September, he had attacked Sterling Price, and driven him from the 
village of luka, after a hard day's fight. When the day was over 
each side was uncertain which had been beaten, but during the 
night Price retreated to join Earl Van Dorn, and Rosecrans retired 
behind the strong works at Corinth. 



AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 611 

About the 1st of October news came that Price and Van Dorn 
were on the march toward Corinth. Rosecrans was uncertain 
whether they meant to attack him, but made all his preparations to 
give them a warm welcome in the event of a battle. 

On the morning of the 3d of October the attack began on the row 
of outer works built around Corinth. The rebels, who, whatever 
their faults, were never to be despised as enemies, made a terrible 
attack, coming on in the pelting fire from the fortifications as if they 
were men of stone. Where the batteries made gaps in their ranks, 
they were filled up as coming waves fill up the troughs of the sea. 
" Some of the men bent their necks downward and marched steadily 
to death, with their faces averted, like men striving to protect 
themselves from a driving storm of hail," says one who saw the 
advance. At night the rebels slept on their arms, expecting next 
day the town would yield, and Price in his tent dictated a dispatch 
to Richmond, announcing a " glorious victory." 

At three o'clock next morning the battle began again. Parties of 
men, some of them contrabands, had worked all night strengthening 
the works and building new ones. On the rebel side guns had 
been leveled against the town, and bombs fell in the very streets of 
Corinth. There was a wild rebel charge upon the liew fortifications. 
For a little the Unionists fall back. Then silently they closed round 
the attacking rebels, beat them back, and their yells of battle 
changed into roars of rage and defeat as they were driven into the 
forests around Corinth. The " rebel yell " was heard always on 
entering battle, and an unearthly yell it was, enough to shake stout 
nerves. "Our men do not often shout before battle," says a looker- 
on at Corinth. " Heavens ! what thunder there is in their throats 
after victory." 

Into the woods they pursued the rebels. The way was marked by 
dead and dying, broken tree branches, gouts of human gore, shat- 
tered guns, and broken bayonets. The day was over, and Corinth 
was still safe. In the flush of this victory came the word to Rose- 
crans to go to Kentucky and take command of Buell's army, now to 
be new baptized as the " Army of the Cumberland." 

When Rosecrans joined his new army he found it in the condition 
of all bodies of men who have fought a discouraging campaign, and 
had a change of generals. There was much to do to bring it into 
order, and the whole country was loudly calling on the " Army of 
the Cumberland " to drive the rebels from Kentucky. Bragg had 
33 



512 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

settled down at Murfreesboro', southeast of Nashville, and was having 
a very good time there. There were parties and balls, card playing, 
and tea drinkings, and general jollity in the town of Murfreesboro'. 
Jefferson Davis was there paying a visit to his favorite general. 
The famous guerrilla chief, Morgan, who had probably burned and 
desolated more homes than any leader of a semi-civilized horde of 
banditti, was here, celebrating his marriage festivities. Bishop Polk 
had laid aside his sword, and donned his disused surplice to marry 
him, and they had a gay wedding with much wine drinking and 
speech making. One would have said that Bragg held Kentucky 
grappled with hooks of steel to the cause for which he was fighting. 
All the time Rosecrans was busy repairing the railway torn up 
between Nashville and Louisville, so that his supplies could come 
from the North in safety. He was too wise to risk being cut off from 
his food by a hostile army, and therefore, while the rebels were fid- 
dling in Murfreesboro', he was steadily piling up two months' pro- 
visions in the store-houses of Nashville. When that was all done he 
was ready to dislodge Bragg from his winter-quarters. 

It was the 26th of December when the march began. Christ- 
mas was just over, and the " boys in blue " had eaten their Christ- 
mas dinners in Nashville. Many of them, I have no doubt, re- 
membering with aching hearts the family circle at home where 
their seats were empty. Such remembrances do not make the 
soldier less brave. Indeed, I believe those to whom home was the 
dearest memory, fought best for their country. 

The morning of the last day of the year found our army in 
front of Murfreesboro', ready for battle. The rebels w^ere on a 
stream known as Stone River, on which lay the town. On one side 
of the river lay the division under John C. Breckenridge, the man 
who had been one of the candidates for president against Abraham 
Lincoln. On the other side, with his face toward Rosecrans, was 
Bragg, with the main part of his army. The rebels numbered 
35,000. The Unionists, 47,000. That sounds like a great dis- 
parity, but Bragg knew the ground best, and it takes more men to 
attack than to defend a field. 

I am tired of battles, and I think you must be, so we will not 
dwell longer than we can help on this battle of Murfreesboro'. I 
will only tell you that on the right of our army, after it had been 
driven back and almost beaten, a gallant general, named Phil. 
Sheridan, held an overmastering force for three hours at bay, leav- 



AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 



613 



ing at last 1,700 men on the field, and joining Roseerans with the 
words, "-Here we are, all that is left of us." How Colonel Hazen, 
with 1,300 men, fought on the left, against odds such as Sher- 
idan had held out against. How Roseerans, as cool as if there 
were no roar of guns, galloped from one part of the field to another, 
insensible to bullets, and only intent on gaining the day. For all 
accounts of death or disaster, he had only one answer, " We must 
win this fight." 

Night settled down on a drawn battle. Neither army would 
admit a defeat, neither could claim a victory. That night in his 
tent General Roseerans made one short speech to his officers. 
'• Gentlemen, we fight, or die right here." Through the first day 




Mules carrying Wounded Men. 

of the new year, both armies stood at bay. Another day dawned, 
and until almost twilight the same inaction prevailed. But at 
three P. m. an attack was begun by Breckenridge, which at first 
seemed successful. Just as the Union troops on one side our lines 
were wavering, fresh troops were sent to support them. Brecken- 
ridge retreated under a terrible fire from our artillery. In half an 
hour he lost 2,000 men. 

It was the last attack of the battle. Next day Bragg retired 
from Murfreesboro', leaving the field to our army. Again the coun- 
try rang with the praises of new heroes who had won laurels at 
the battle of Murfreesboro'. 



514 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

EMANCIPATION. 

The Day of Jubilee. — Sambo in the Union Lines. — The Loyal Chattel. — Lincoln on the 
Union and Shivery. — His Solemn Vow. — The Emancipation Proclamation. — Prejudice 
against Negro Soldiers. 

There are certain anniversaries which ought to be sacred to every 
American citizen. I need not tell you that we all should honor the 
Fourth of July, the day on which this nation was born. I hope and 
believe the day is fast coming when every patriotic American will 
revere equally the first day of January, 1863. On that day the 
bondmen and bondwomen of the United States were proclaimed /rgg 
men and women. Slavery, which had been a shame and reproach 
to this country among all the civilized nations, was abolished, and 
we were able to say of America, as one of her poets had said of 
England, — 

" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
Receive our air, that moment they are free ; 
They touch our country and their shackles fall." 

The war did not at first make much difference in the opinion of 
the North about slavery. The people said, this is a " War for the 
Union," and went into it with little consideration for the negro. 
But it was very soon found that the negro kept getting in the way. 
When General Butler found them set to work by their masters, 
near Fortress Monroe, digging fortifications to keep out our armies, 
he decided they were " contraband " as much as corn or cotton. 
When Fremont saw that the masters in Missouri were disloyal, and 
that their slaves were loyal, he. pronounced the loyal men free men. 
But when Halleck took Fremont's place, he changed all this, ordered 
the negroes to take themselves off, and allowed the masters to come 
and take away their escaping slaves. 

There was, of course, a great difference of feeling among army 
officers, about slavery. When the rebel masters came to the Union 
camp, asking if their "boy Jim," "Sambo," or " Pompey " was 
within our lines, and requesting permission to look for him there, 
some of the officers politely escorted the slave-owner through the 
camp, offering every assistance to find the poor, half-starved wretch, 
who had come to the Union lines, believing that Freedom traveled 
alono; with its banners. In Missouri, during the war, some bright, 



EMANCIPATION. 515 

wide-awake negroes brought to our camp valuable news of the 
enemy's movements. A little later the owner of these men came to 
demand that they should be returned to him. The slaves, perhaps 
warned of the coming of the master, had already fled. Well, how 
did the Union officer treat the disloyal master claiming to own these 
men, who had given proof of their devotion to this country ? They 
mounted their horses and went off with the master to hunt down 
the slaves, and in taking them, one of the Union officers shot the 
slave who had so well earned his right to be a free man under the 
flag he had served. On the other hand there were officers who, in 
spite of orders admitting owners into the lines to take away their 
" chattels," said, " No ! I did not come here to be a slave-hunter. 
No man shall enter my camp for that purpose. The enemies of my 
country are my enemies. Its friends, black or white, are my 
friends!" 

The soldiers, a very large part of them, went into the war op- 
posed to " fighting a war for the negroes." They fought for the 
Union, and wanted to let slaver}'- alone. But when, month after 
month, they saw the negro, loyal through all discouragement and 
repulse, welcoming everywhere the march of our army ; when they 
heard the stories told by the slaves at camp-fires, where they sought 
shelter ; when they found that wherever the hand of the white was 
raised to strike and curse them, the hand of the black was out- 
stretched in help and blessing, the soldiers began to change their 
minds on the subject. There were more men who became " Aboli- 
tionists " in the United States army during the two first years of 
the war, than all the numbers put together who had joined that 
little party under William Lloyd Garrison's noble teachings. 

Poor Mr. Lincoln in the White House at Washington, his sad 
eyes every day growing sadder as he carried the heavy load of 
duties his office brought him, was always very much troubled by 
the slavery question. In his heart he hated slavery, believed it 
a sin, and had believed so from boyhood. But he believed him- 
self a servant of the great people, put into his place to obey their 
bidding. It was his duty to save the nation's life, and bring her 
out from her great danger ; not to touch slavery unless her safety 
demanded it. He said : — 

" My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save 
or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any 
slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I 



516 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some und leaving others 
alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the col- 
ored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and 
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to 
save this Union." 

Of course he was assailed on both sides. Bodies of men waited 
on him, begging him not to touch slavery. If he did so he would 
lose the sympathy of thousands in the border States who h^ld slaves, 
and yet had clung to the Union. Other bodies of men waited on 
him, begging him to emancipate the slaves ; telling him that the 
sympathies of all foreign nations would be with us if we only showed 
that we warred against slavery ; declaring that the back-bone of 
rebellion would be broken if slavery were destroyed. 

Between them both Lincoln stood, often solely tried and per- 
plexed in the extreme. At length, in August, 1862, he called to- 
gether his cabinet, and showed them a copy of a proclamation free- 
ing all slaves of rebel owners. His secretary of state, Willliam H. 
Seward, a thoughtful statesman, and long known as an antislavery 
man, begged him to wait a little. " We are in dark days now," 
said Seward, " and this will look like a last measure, a cry to 
Ethiopia for help." So Mr. Lincoln put aside the paper. Shortly 
after came Pope's repulses in Virginia. Things looked darker and 
darker. Then the battle at Antietam drew near. " I made a sol- 
emn vow before God," said the president, talking of it afterwards, 
" that if General Lee was driven back from Maryland, I would 
crown the act by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." 

Many vows of most solemn import have been offered up to the 
Almighty, but there are few in all histor}^ with so great a result as 
that which gave freedom to a race. 

Therefore, on the 1st of January, 1863, President Lincoln an- 
nounced to the nation, and to those in arms against it, that all the 
slaves of those at war against the government were thenceforth 
FREE. The rebels became bitterer than ever, and declared this 
last blow at their rights and their property had made it impossible 
for them ever to yield. They would die to the last man. Many in 
the North loudly denounced Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. 
But in truth, almost every man in the United States whose heart 
was in the restoration of the Union, believed that the right thing 
had been done, and that now, for the first time, the God who parted 
the waters of the Red Sea that a race of bondmen might walk 
through to freedom, was ready to smile on our nation's cause. 



SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 517 

From the beginning, negroes had been emph)yed by the rebels to 
work on their fortifications, and dig in their trenches. As the prej- 
udice against using them began to melt away in our armies, spades 
were put into their hands, and they were employed in our lines. In 
the summer of 1862 negro soldiers were talked of, and Congress 
passed a law the next spring, permitting the raising of black regi- 
ments. Massachusetts gave the first colored regiment to the coun- 
try. It was known as the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, and its 
colonel, Robert G. Shaw, was descended from a noble line of anti- 
slavery ancestors. 

This regiment, the first to shed its blood in the struggle which 
gave freedom to their race, was not permitted to pass through the 
city of New York, on their way to the seat of war. It was danger- 
ous even then, in the metropolis of the nation, for a black man to 
wear the free garb of the soldier. The troops were therefore sent 
from Boston by water in May, 1863. But only a few months later, 
a negro regiment passed down Broadway, New York city, cheered 
by thousands, who came out to see them march. So rapid were the 
strides made by public opinion in the four years of the war, that 
only the seven-league boots of a Brobdignagian giant could keep 
up with it. 



CHAPTER XL VI. 

SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 



Western Men. — Surroiindinjxs of Vicksburg. — Digging a Canal again. — Running the Bat- 
teries. — Grant's Baggage. — The Assaults. — Bombardment. — Surrender. — Port Hudson. 
— The Mississippi flows unvexed to the Sea. 

The armies under Grant's command were largely made up of 
Western men, — the men of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana. 
These men felt that the Mississippi River belonged to them. To 
shut it up with hostile batteries, to divide it by stretching across it 
the boundary of a foreign nation, and so cut them off from the Gulf 
of Mexico, these men of the Northwest felt would be an unendura- 
ble injury. They were prepared to fight for their river till their 
blood flowed to the Gulf as freely as its waters. So while the East 
clamored, " On to Richmond," the West cried, " On to Vicksburg 
and New Orleans." 

You have not forgotten how the glorious work of Farragut and 



518 



STORY OF OUR. COUNTRY. 




13-inch Mortar. 



Butler gave us New Orleans in 1862. By that victory we held 
firmly the great mouths of the Mississippi. And by the conquests 

of Island No. 10 and Fort Pil- 

-^ - low we held the river from its 

'^^ -^ ~ - source to Memphis. The only 

places that opposed the passage 
of our boats from New Or- 
leans to the Falls of St. An- 
i thony, were Vicksburg, Mis- 
<« sissippi, and Port Hudson, 
Louisiana, one hundred and 
[^ fifty miles up the river from 
New Orleans. Take these, and 
the river would be free. 
But Vicksburg was thought to be invincible. After our gallant 
Farragut had taken New Orleans, he went up the river with gun- 
boats to attack Vicksburg. Assisted by Commodore Porter, they 
had hammered on the town with cannon-ball and bomb-shell without 
making any impression on it. Disappointed and weary of the siege, 
they had turned back. The rebels boasted that Vicksburg could 
not be taken. The government and the people were almost in- 
clined to believe their boasts. 

But General U. S. Grant intended to take Vicksburg and open 
the Mississippi. It was what he came there for. Another great 
general had said. There is no such word as "impossible." Grant 
did not say this — he had very little to say at any time — but he 
acted it, which was better. 

Vicksburg was built on the " bluffs," or heights, which rise up 
steeply from the flat bottom lands of the river. All through these 
bottom lands ran interlacing creeks, or bayous. These swampy 
stretches of land were covered with dense cypress woods, or im- 
passable sloughs, in which a man would sink in mud up to his arm- 
pits. At various points in the approach, the swamps were made 
more difficult to traverse by trees felled to lie across each other, 
their branches left sticking up, so that it was almost impossible for 
an army to clamber through them. * Inside the city and all about 
the edges of the bluff, slaves had been at work for months throwing 
up fortifications. Do you wonder if it seemed that Vicksburg could 
not be taken? 

The last month of the year 1862, Grant sent General Sherman 



SIEGE OF. VICKSBURG. 



519 



with 30,000 men down from Memphis to the mouth of the Yazoo 
River, which flows into the Mississippi twelve miles above Vicks- 
burg. Here Sherman landed his men, and going down to the banks 
of Chickasaw Bayou, made an attack upon the northern defenses of 
Vicksburg. Sherman was a splendid officer, and the attack w^as a 
gallant one, but hopeless. We left hundreds upon hundreds of our 
brave fellows lying dead among those tangled tree-boughs, and in 
the swamps and quicksands along the bayou, and then Sherman fell 
back to be joined by General McClernand. Together they took a 
post on the Arkansas River, fifty miles from the Mississippi, which 
consoled them a little for the failure. 

Grant was having also bad fortune on his part of the river. 
All his supplies at Holly Springs he had left to be guarded by an 




incompetent officer, named Murphy. While Grant was absent in 
some other part of his army. Sterling Price and Earl Van Dorn, 
who usually hunted in couples, came down and took Murphy in 
their toils and carried off everything tliey could lay their hands on. 
Murphy was discharged for cowardice or incapacity, but that did not 
bring back the supplies. 

Still Grant was no whit discouraged. He began to move his 
army down to the mouth of the Yazoo River, where he first sent 
Sherman. His army was in three corps, under Sherman, McCler- 
nand, and McPherson, a splendid trio, devoted to the cause for which 



520 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

they fought, Avith no half-way feeling. Here at this river's mouth, for 
almost three months, Grant was feeling his way to victory. The 
year before, when Farragat's ships had made the attempt on Vicks- 
burg, a canal was begun across a tongue of land round which the 
river bent in a sharp angle. If this canal covild be completed, ships 
and gun-boats could pass below Vicksburg, as they had passed be- 
low Island No. 10, and attack it in the rear. The canal had been 
given up at that time, and now Grant's soldiers began digging again 
in this old ditch, and were going on hopefully, when one day the 
treacherous river overflowed ; away went the banks of the canal, 
and the diggers were forced to run for their lives. So the canal 
attempt Avas again abandoned. 

All these months a plan was maturing in the mind of the general, 
who sat night after night, " peering in maps, for ports, or piers, or 
roads," searching for the best way to approach Vicksburg. At last 
the i^lan was full grown in the head of the leader. Then he pre- 
pared to act. 

Commodore Porter of the navy was at hand with a full fleet of 
stanch gun-boats. There were plent}^ of transports for the soldiers. 
Grant decided to send the boats of all kinds to run the formidable 
batteries of Vicksburg. He himself would march with the army 
down the west bank of the Mississippi till he got below Vicksburg, 
and meeting the boats there, the army could be taken across the 
river, and attack the place in the rear. 

The rebel armies in this whole region were commanded by General 
Joseph E. Johnston, whom Lee had superseded in Virginia, after his 
wound at Fair Oaks. This army was divided in two parts. One was 
under Bragg in Tennessee ; the other under General Pemberton in 
Mississippi. General Pemberton's army was lying north of Vicks- 
burg, when Grant with his transports carefully covered up with cotton 
bales to protect them from cannon-balls, passed Vicksburg in safety, 
and stopped fifty miles down the river. The three corps marched 
down the west bank, — Grant in the centre with Sherman, while 
McClernand mai-ehed on his left hand, and McPlierson on his right. 

When Grant embarked in his transports to cross to the east side 
of the Mississippi he gave hiS men three days' food in their knap- 
sacks, and thtew away every article of unnecessary baggage. His 
own luggage consisted of a comb, toothbrush, and a pipe and tobacco 
pouch. This silent general of ours was a constant smoker. 

With this slender provision for the future our army crossed the 



SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 521 

Mississippi. It must live on the country till Vicksburg fell. It 
was victory or death ; conquest or starvation. The first business at 
hand was to take Grand Gulf and Port Gibson, two places lying 
below the city. This our troops proceeded to do with great alacrity. 
They crossed the river on the 29th of April, and by the morning of 
May 3d both Grand Gulf and Port Gibson were held by Grant's 
army. The way was clearing fast. 

In the mean time Grant's new plan of attack had forced Pember- 
ton to march south. His army now lay to the east of Vicksburg 
awaiting the attack, and prepared, if driven back, to take shelter in 
the town. At this crisis of affairs Grant heard that Johnston, by 
far the cleverest general the rebels had in the West, was likely to 
come up behind him at any time. His head-quarters were at Jack- 
son, the caj)ital of Mississippi. If Johnston were left there in large 
force he could come up behind Grant as he went on towards Pem- 
berton, and shut him in between the two rebel hosts, like a rat in a 
trap. " I do not propose to leave any enemy in my rear," said 
Grant, and accordingly marched across to Jackson to meet the 
enemy. There was some smart fighting on the way towards Jackson 
which opened the way for an easy victory at the town. Johnston 
was no longer there when the army reached the capital of Missis- 
sippi. He had found he was not strong enough in numbers to hope 
for success and had prudently withdrawn. Our soldiers enjoyed 
running up the stars and stripes on the Mississippi state-house, and 
after singing " We '11 rally round the flag," marched back towards 
Pemberton's encampment. 

On the 16th of May the armies met midway between Jackson and 
Vicksburg and had their first field battle. The rebels were forced 
back, and on the next day Pemberton's army, shattered and broken, 
marched inside Vicksburg and shut themselves up there. The siege 
of Vicksburg was began. 

Next an assault upon the town was tried. This was on the 18th 
of May. Its ill-success ought to have decided the fact, that the 
men who would take Vicksburg must sit down outside its walls and 
possess their souls in patience. Time and General Grant would 
surely win the town if Joseph E. Johnston did not come up from 
behind with a bigger army. Several assaults were tried without 
much result, and at length the army encamped at -ease outside the 
walls and the siege begun. 

Now oiir bomb-shells began a constant whiz ! whiz ! into the town. 



522 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

The people inside dug caves in the precipitous streets of the bkifp 
on whose side the town was built and there they took refuge from 
the shells. Sometimes the caves were quite comfortable ; furniture 
and bedding was carried in, and the women and children huddled 
together there for safety. Provisions began to grow scarce. There 
were reports that mules had been eaten, and even rats had been 
killed for food. The only hope of the rebels was that Johnston 
might raise an army and come to their succor. Grant's only fear 
was that Johnston might be able to do this. A letter from a rebel 
in Vicksburg to his wife was intercepted and put into Grant's hands. 
" We put our trust in the Lord," said the writer; " and we expect 
Joe Johnston to come to our relief." 

Grant smiled grimly. " They put a good deal of faith in the 
Lord and Joe Johnston," he said to Sherman ; " but you must wliip 
Johnston at least fifteen miles from here." 

Johnston did not come. He could not get together a sufficient 
army. May passed into June, June melted into July, and the 
troops still surrounded Vicksburg. On the second day of July a 
white flag waved over the walls of the beleaguered city. A little 
later two men, closely blindfolded, were led tlirough our lines to 
Grant's head-quarters. They came to ask on what terms he would 
take Vicksburg. Grant, who had already been named " Uncon- 
ditional Surrender " Grant, offered the terms which had given him 
that title. The rebels were to throw down their arms, and give 
up the city with all it contained. He would meet General Pember- 
ton next day at three o'clock, when all firing should be stopped, 
while they talked over the matter. The result of the talk was the 
understanding that Grant's army should sleep the next night in 
Vicksburg. 

It was ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of July, when the 
rebel army, 27,000 in number, marched out of their defenses, each 
regiment throwing its guns, knapsacks, and ammunition, in a great 
pile, and covering them with the regimental flag. This was done in 
funereal silence, our men looking on in silent sympathy for their 
beaten foes. 

But they did cheer loudly when Vicksburg was fairly entered, and 
the national flag was flying there. It was the happiest 4th of July 
in a long time. And when the telegraph wires told the country 
that " Vicksburg had fallen," the delight almost passed bounds. As 
the news spread from city to town, from town to village, the whole 



SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 



523 



North resounded with the ringing of bells and the pealing of cannon. 
It was the brightest day since the war. 

Ever since the last of May General Banks had been besieging 
Port Hudson in the river below. He had made many assaults upon 
the place, and was ably aided by some regiments of colored men, 
formerly slaves, who prized freedom sufficiently to sell their lives 
for it. But up to the taking of Vicksburg the place held out. On 
the 7th of July news reached the rebel commander in Port Hud- 
son that Vicksburg was taken. Immediately he proposed surrender ; 
and on the 9th of July the place, with G,400 prisoners, was in Banks's 
power. The last obstacle was gone from the Mississippi. The great 
river was unfettered from its source to its mouth. Once more it 
flowed " unvexed to the sea." 




A Louisiana Swamp. 

While Banks was at work in southern Mississippi, the rebels in 
Texas had taken advantage of his absence to make trouble there. 
The rebel Magruder, whom we heard of in Virginia early in the 
war, had attacked Galveston, and made great havoc among our ships 
on the Texan coast. The rebels in upper Louisiana also rose in 
arms, and began to march south, apparently with hostile designs on 
New Orleans. Therefore, when Banks returned victorious from 



52-4 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



Port Hudson, he started on an expedition to clear the rebels from 
these States. He was so far successful that they were soon driven 
across the Colorado River, and Texas and Louisiana were again 
under national control. 

The Southwest was restored again to its allegiance. Arkansas 
was entered by the Union troops. Our standard floated over Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama. One such victory as that of Vicksburg in 
the East, and the war would be at an end. 



CHAPTER XLVH. 



THE WAR IN THE EAST. 



The Army in Winter-quarters. — Stonewall Jackson's Death. — Invasion of Pennsylvania. — 
The Call for a Leader. — Gettysburg. — Sanitary Commission. — Horrors of a Battle-field. 
— Narrative of an Eye-witness. — A Modern Sidney. — The Consecration of Gettysburg. 

It is discouraging to turn from the army of the West to the army 
of the East. We left the Army of the Potomac after the defeat at 
Fredericksburg, in its winter-quarters on the Rappahannock. Lee, 




Army Huts. 

still strongly ensconced in Fredericksburg. Burnside, discouraged 
and always very distrustful of his ability, resigned. Fighting Joe 
Hooker, who enjoyed a great popularity among the soldiers, was 
made his successor. He took command in January, 1863, and 
began brushing up the army again, and getting it in trim for a new 
campaign. 

In April it numbered one hundred thousand foot, thirteen thou- 
sand horse, and ten thousand artillery, all in splendid marching order. 



THE WAR IN THE EAST. 525 

Hooker ordered a movement across the Rappahannock River. He 
was at this time on the opposite side from Fredericksburg, and by a 
secret movement across the river, to the rear of Lee, he hoped to 
come down and give a decisive blow to his forces. He moved his 
army successfully, and the last of April he had reached Chancellors- 
ville, northwest of Fredericksburg, so quietly that Lee knew nothing 
of his movements till he heard of him there. When he heard of this 
new position, he determined not to be attacked in Fredericksburg, 
but to go out and give battle himself. Accordingly, on the 1st day 
of May, the advance columns of Hooker's army met the advance 
of Lee, who, ably seconded in his plans by Stonewall Jackson, was 
approaching Chancellorsville. The events of that day were unim- 
portant, and at night Hooker ordered his army behind their de- 
fenses at Chancellorsville, while Lee and Jackson, only a little dis- 
tance from his lines, talked over the plan of attack next day. 

The morning of the 2d of May saw the beginning of the un- 
fortunate battle of Chancellorsville. Although the Union force 
outnumbered the rebels, the masterly skill with which Stonewall 
Jackson managed the attack, made the day a sad one for our coun- 
try. All day Jackson was in the field inspiring his army of 30,000 
picked troops with all his own valor. At the close of the day he 
had pushed forward with some of his staff, till he was under fire 
from the Union lines. He spurred back hastily towards a com- 
pany of his own men. His men saw him coming, and mistaking 
their general and his staff for a party of Union cavalry, fired 
all together into their midst, and Jackson, their leader, and the pride 
of the rebel army in Virginia, fell dangerously wounded. He 
lived a few days, hopeful of recovery till almost the last, and died 
on the 10th of May. So ended the career of one of the most re- 
markable soldiers of the rebellion. When, after his fall. General 
Lee heard that Jackson's left arm had been amputated, he wrote 
him, " You have lost your left arm ; but I have lost my right arm 
in you." He was the very right arm of the -rebellion in Virginia, 
and his loss was a greater blow to Lee than any single defeat. 
Even his success at Chancellorsville could not compensate for it. 
The battle was resumed the next day, and the next ; the rebels all 
the time driving back the Unionists towards the river. On the 
5th of May Hooker retreated across the stream, and once more 
settled down in his old quarters. 

One month after this sickening defeat' at Chancellorsville, there 



526 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

was a stir all through the rebel lines. Encouraged by his successes, 
and believing that his army had proved themselves incapable of 
defeat, Lee determined to carry out his design of taking the war 
out of Virginia. He was ready for another invasion into Pennsyl- 
vania. Just about one month after the last battle he was on the 
march, and by the 27th of June part of his array had reached 
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. 

The inhabitants of Pennsylvania were overwhelmed with alarm, 
and all over the North the news spread consternation. For as yet 
the Union armies in Virginia had not had a general in whom public 
confidence rested. The North had seen army after army wasted 
and broken. It had seen in Virginia the failures of McClellan, 
Pope, Burnside, Hooker. The whole North cried for a leader for 
this splendid army, on which it layished its riches without stint. 

" Back from the trebly crimsoned field 
Terrible words are thunder-tost, 
Full of the -wrath that Avill not yield, 

Full of revenge for battles lost ! 
Hark to their echo, as it crost 
The capital, making faces wan ! 
' End this murderous holocaust ! 

Abraham Lincoln, give us a man.' " 

" ' Oh, we will follow him to the death, 

Where the foeman's fiercest columns are ; 
Oh, Ave will use our latest breath, 
Cheering for every sacred star. 
His to marshal us nigh and far, 

Ours to battle, as patriots can, 
AVhen a hero leads the Holy War! 
' Abraham Lincoln, give us a man.' " 

Such was the cry of both people and army as a poet puts it into 
words. 

This extract from the above poem printed at this time, represents 
the feeling of nearly every loyal heart. Hooker's army was much re- 
duced by its last defeat and by the expiration of the term for which 
many of the men had enlisted, to a bare remnant of the great army 
of April. He led it on to Frederick in Maryland, the same place 
from whence McClellan had started in pursuit of Lee in his former 
invasion. Here another change was made in the command. Gen- 
eral Halleck at Washington, and Hooker in Virginia, had a dispute 
about the policy of evacuating Harper's Ferry. It ended in Hook- 



THE WAR IN THE EAST. 



527 




General George G. Meade. 



er's throwing up Lis command, and Halleck at once put General 
George G. Meade in his stead. 

Meade took the command, and heavily reinforced from Washing- 
ton, kept in pursuit of Lee. 
The rebel army had already 
ravaged the region about 
Chambersburg, and were pre- 
paring to cross the Susque- 
hanna River, near Harris- 
burg, the state capital. When 
Lee heard that Meade was on 
his track, he paused to consider 
what he should do next. It 
would hardly be wise to get 
too far away from his supplies, 
until he had again proved his 
superiority in battle. There- 
fore Lee concluded to wait and fight the Union army before he 
went any farther. 

On the morning of the 1st of July 6,000 mounted Union soldiers 
met the advance of Lee's army near the village of Gettysburg. It 
was an obscure little town, nestling among hills, and famous then 
for nothing but its peaceful beauty. Now its name rings in our ears 
like a war- trumpet, calling up scenes only of bloodshed and battle. 

The battle began on the morning of the 1st. It raged for three 
days along the ridges tliat bounded the little town, growing more 
and more fearful as these summer days went by. At the end of 
the second day's fighting, the advantage seemed in favor of Lee. 
Alread}^ nearly 40,000 men were dead or wounded, in the two 
armies. But on the third day the tide turned. Victory, so long 
a stranger to the cause of the Union, at last came to bless the old 
flag. On the evening of the 3d of July Lee began silently and 
swiftly to withdraw his army, thoroughly foiled in his second at- 
tempt at invading the North. On the 4th of July, when the 
triumphant shouts were going up from Vicksburg, Lee was on his 
way from the field of Gettysburg. That sacred day had given us 
two occasions for rejoicing, and hope once more animated the heart 
of the nation. 

When Lee's retreating army moved off the field, it left thou- 
sands of dead and wounded behind. And of the Army of the 
34 



528 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Potomac, probably 15,000 dead and wounded lay in the valleys 
and on the hill-slopes about Gettysburg. I will not attempt to 
paint the horrors of such a battle-field, where between twenty and 
thirty thousand men, in all degrees of agony, torn by gun-shot 
wounds, or mangled by cannon-ball, lay hours and days under the 
July sun, crying for death to put an end to their torments. 

As soon as possible after the battle, the country began to send 
help to these sufferers. Delegates from different States hurried to 
the field bearing all the comforts that tender hearts could devise. 
The " Sanitary Commission," an organization formed to relieve the 
sufferings of the soldier on the battle-field or in the hospital, sent 
on its great supplies of stores ; food, medicine, dressing for wounds, 
and everything else that could minister to the men. In many 
cases the governors of the States headed the delegation which went 
to carry succor to its brave sons on the field. From one of these 
eye-witnesses I have the following account of Gettysburg within 
twenty -four hours after the last day's fighting was over. 

",As I approached the scene of battle," says my informant, "it 
seemed to me at first as if the terrible, sickening odor which 
arose from the field strewn with dead and dying men, and dead 
horses, would make it impossible for me to remain there for a mo- 
ment. I paused, faint and almost suffocated. But summoning 
up all the powers of my will, reflecting on the suffering of those 
who had lain in that dreadful place since the battle began, more 
than three days before, I pushed on, resolved that no weakness of 
the senses should delay me in such an errand. 

" Now my ears were greeted by a chorus of groans and outcries, 
such as T shall never forget, to my dying day. I hear them some- 
times now in my dreams. They came from a barn on my right, in 
which some of the wounded had been hurridly lain for shelter till 
some better disposition could be made of them. I went to the 
door of the building. Inside, the floor was covered thick with 
men, in all degrees of agony, from all sorts of wounds. Many 
were already dead, many were too near death to make any sound, 
but from those not yet too weak to cry out, came that pitiful 
moaning of strong men struck down while full of life and health. 

" I. called aloud, ' Are there any boys from New Hampshire 
here ? ' A few heads raised up a little, and some eager voices 
cried ' Here.' 

" I had with me a few cans of jelly, only what I could carry in 



THE WAB IN THE EAST. 529 

my hands, as I had hastened on in advance. This I opened at once 
and began to distribnte by teaspoonfuls to the parched mouths and 
throats of the men. There was not enough in all I had to moisten 
the lips of one tenth of the sufferers, and I cannot describe the pain 
it cost me to refuse any of them. There were many wounded rebels 
among them, and they begged piteously for a taste of the cooling 
jelly, or even to lap out with their tongues the dishes when they 
were emptied. Poor fellows, my heart bled for them, as truly as 
for our own boys, and what poor help I could give them I rendered. 
They were all brother men together, and I pitied all equally. 

" One young lieutenant from my own State I found in such a hor- 
rible state of suffering as I will not attempt to describe. He had 
been two or three days under the sun, with a terrible wound in the 
side and was just brought in under cover and laid on the bare floor 
of the barn. I knelt beside him and with some water which I 
brought in a tin cup, began to bathe out his wound. He looked up 
with a smile of gratitude. ' Ah, that feels good. So good,' he 
said, ' but you would better not waste time over me, I can only last 
a few hours longer at most. I can't possibly get well, and some of 
the men will recover with care. Go and look after them.' " 

This is one little glimpse of the battle-field at Gettysburg. I 
do not wish to dwell on its horrors, and we will turn aside from 
• them. Our best remembrance of it is that there were deeds of hero- 
ism and words of noble self-sacrifice, such as fell from the lips of the 
dying lieutenant, that make us feel the grandeur of humanity. 
Many a noble deed that will never be recorded, was done by men 
who seemed but rough fellows to the outer vision. Let us thank 
God for these redeeming features of war, for these proofs of the 
divine beauty of human souls. The battle-fields of America have 
shown that the last Sidney did not die at Zutphen. 

Shortly after this the field at Gettysburg was consecrated as a 
national cemetery for the burial of our soldiers. In November, 
after the battle. President Lincoln went there to be present at the 
ceremony. Standing above the graves of those who had fallen there, 
he said, "Let us here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain ; that this nation shall, under God, have a new birth of 
freedom ; that a government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

To which solemn words all loyal hearts responded earnestly^ 
Amen ! 



530 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



RIOTS IN NEW YORK CITY. 



Drafting. — Traitors in the North. — A Peace Party. — Beginning of the Draft. —The Mob. 
— Destruction of Private Property. — Mob Violence is suppressed. 

You can fancy that the great loss of men in our armies must have 
kept up a constant call for soldiers from all the loyal States, and 
that the enthusiasm which at first existed would be somewhat 
dampened by the series of disasters in Virginia. In tlie spring of 
1863 the vacancies in the armies filled up so slowly that the govern- 
ment found it would be obliged to resort to drafting to fill up the 
ranks. Up to this time all those enlisted in the national army had 
done so of their own free will. The rebels had long before drafted 
to fill their armies, and even boys and gray-haired old men were 
seen bearing arms in their ranks. 

You have heard perhaps of drafting or " conscription " in Europe. 




Drafting Wheel. 

In certain European lands, Prussia for example, every able-bodied 
man is liable to be taken as a soldier for three years. Those coun- 
tries keep a large standing army all the time ready for Avar. In 
America we have only a small regular army, depending on the 
citizens to " volunteer " in times of need. But now, as the volun- 
teers did not come in fast enough. President Lincoln decided there 
must be a draft. 

The conditions of the draft were mild and reasonable. No man 
over forty-five years nor under eighteen years could be taken. A son 
who was the support of his widowed mother could not be drawn, 



RIOTS IN NEW YORK CITY. 531 

nor a father with motherless children ; indeed, there were many 
modifications that made the drafting as mild as might be. 

But the ill-fortune we had suffered in the war thus far had dis- 
couraged so many of the loyal people, and affairs looked so dark for 
the Union in the first half of 1863, before the Vicksburg and Gettys- 
burg successes, that the evil counsels of the party in the North who 
were traitorously in sympathy with the rebels, began to be heard 
more loudly than they had dared to speak since Sumter was fired on. 
The Governor of New York, Horatio Seymour, was one of these 
sympathizers ; Franklin Pierce, ex-president of the United States, 
was another, and many others of less note scattered over the North, 
joined with some of the leading newspapers in our large cities, were 
doing all in their power to put an end to the war at any cost, how- 
ever harmful to the nation. Of course at this time the war could 
have ended on no other terms than the division of this noble nation 
into two parts. It would have been like cutting a body in two, or 
dividing the top of a tree from its roots. Fancy, if you are a loyal 
American, how it would have been if we had then surrendered the 
Union ; drawn a line across Virginia, Kentucky, and on west to the 
Pacific, and allowed the South to become a foreign nation on our 
borders. 

Still this " peace party " in the North clamored for the end of 
war, even though they must have known it could only come by 
yielding up our national life. Therefore, under the treasonable 
teachings of some of these men, the draft was made unpopular in 
our large cities. The leaders of the " peace party " had probably 
no definite idea of exciting forcible opposition to the draft. They 
were, as a rule, American citizens, and even in their wildest mo- 
ments, American citizens are not inclined to turn themselves into a 
mob, or to furnish mob-leaders. But in some of our large cities, 
especially in New York, where we have most generously opened our 
doors to the poor and oppressed of other countries, and have per- 
haps too generously given them the right of citizenship while they 
were still steeped in the ignorance in which they were born in their 
own lands, there were a large class of voters whom bad teachings 
could at any time turn into a mob. This class was principally 
composed of the Irish population. I should be unjust to the other for- 
eign citizens of our country, if I included them. The Germans, who 
come next in numbers, to the Irish, are, as a rule, peaceable, law- 
abiding citizens, many of them Republicans in theory before they 



582 STOEY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

join oar republic. Tlie Irish, brought up under EngHsh rule, which 
they are trained to hate, and are always in antagonism with, have 
by a long habit of resistance to law, become unfit subjects for a 
democratic government. They form, in all our large cities, where 
they number in sufficient force, a lawless inflammable mass of igno- 
rant people, ready to rush into violence when wrought on by bad 
leaders. 

On the 13th of July, in 1863, when in several appointed places 
in New York cit}^ the drafting had begun, such a mob as was never 
before seen in the United States surrounded the offices ; drove the 
officers from their posts ; set some of the buildings on fire ; tore out 
the contents of other buildings into the streets ; and began a mad 
career of destruction and anarchy. 

Gathering in force, armed with clubs, brickbats, and other weap- 
ons, this great tide of furious men, women, and boys rushed on 
through the streets. They entered private houses and scattered the 
contents to the four winds. They robbed and murdered unoffend- 
ing citizens in the streets, and sacked shops filled with valuable 
wares, carrying off clothing, jewels, and other spoils. On one of the 
avenues of the city was a fine building raised by the charity of good 
men and, women, devoted to the protection and rearing of colored 
children left fatherless and motherless. The bestial multitude 
rushed thither, and driving off the few policemen that could be 
called to guard it, they sacked and burned the building. Fortu- 
nately the children had been taken away before the mob had reached 
the spot, and thus their lives were saved. But woe to the unoffend- 
ing blacks, men, women, or children, who fell in the way of the riot- 
ers. They stabbed them; trampled on them, burned their bodies 
before life was extinct, hanged them on lamp posts, almost tore 
them limb from limb in their wild-beast fury. 

One of the loyal newspapers of New York was the " Tribune," 
founded and edited by Horace Greeley. For years this eminent 
journalist had been the earnest friend of the laboring classes. Prob- 
ably no man in the United States had done more to elevate the 
masses who formed this very mob than Horace Greeley. Yet they 
howled curses on him, and sought him that they might sacrifice him 
to their thirst for blood. Pausing before the house of a philan- 
thropic citizen where Mr. Greeley was accustomed to visit, and where 
a part of the mob believed he lived, they sacked the house from top 
to bottom. Among other valuables the owner had a fine library, 



EFFORTS TO TAKE CHARLESTON. 533 

and they tore the priceless books from the bindings, scattering the 
leaves to the winds, as if in their brutal ignorance they would visit 
their hatred of all learning on the innocent books that contained it. 
For three days robbery, arson, murder raged in the streets. New 
York did not contain one Napoleon bold enough to set a cannon at 
the end of a street where the mob centred, and with one blast put 
the speediest and least bloody end to this riot. At last, on the 16th 
of July, soldiers began to arrive, bayonets began to bristle in the 
streets, and before a few determined armed men, the mob slunk to 
their dens in corner grog-shops and low tenement houses, loaded with 
the spoils they had gained, and the uprising was over. How hid- 
eous and demoniacal the scenes of those three days were, only those 
who saw them can tell. And for weeks afterwards the faces of those 
who had been part of the mob, glowed with savage ferocity. 
Even the boys who had hooted and howled in its midst, looked like 
animals who had tasted blood for the first time. So ended tlie "iVt-w 
Yorh draft 7'iots,^^ one of the most terrible episodes of the whole war. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

EFFORTS TO TAKE CHARLESTON. 

Tliree Strongliolds of the Enemy. — Monitors in Charleston Harbor. — Folly Island. — The 
Storming of Wagner. — Robert Shaw "buried under his Niggers." — The Swamp Angel. 
— Fall of Wagner. 

By the beginning of the year 1863 the onl}^ real obstacle to our 
possession of the whole sea-coast from Fortress Monroe to New 
Orleans, was Charleston, South Carolina. It was one of the three 
points which, when conquered, would decide the fate of the nation. 
From the first, as soon as Vicksburg, Richmond, and Charleston 
could be reduced, every one knew the war would be at an end. 

The care with which the entrance to Charleston was guarded, 
showed that the rebels thought so too. The approach to Charles- 
ton harbor is between a mass of those low-lying islands that fringe 
the whole Atlantic coast. All these islands flanking the liarbor 
were dotted thick with forts and batteries. Right in the middle of 
the channel leading to the city stood Fort Sumter, the proudest 
trophy of rebellion, with her guns pointing out to sea, and the 
" stars and bars " floating over her battered walls. 



534 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




An Armored Lookout. 



Early in 1863 Commodore Dupont lay off Morris Island with 
his fleet. He had five splendid gun-boats and nine iron monitors, 

— each one of them an exact 
copy of the famous little craft 
we lately saw fighting the 
Merrimack in Hampton 
Roads. The nine were mar- 
shaled in line. They wer^ 
going up through the passage 
between Morris and Sulli- 
van's Island, between the fire 
from both forts, to attack 
Sumter. The men on Jjoard 
the Ironsides^ — Dupont's 
flag-ship — might see with a field-glass the roofs of Charleston 
crowded with spectators, looking curiously, but without any dismay, 
on our attacking fleet. They had come to believe Charleston im- 
pregnal)le, and had little fear for its safety. 

Our iron-clads went boldly up and began the bombardment. But 
though they rained balls on the fort like hail-stones, the attack was 
in vain. In return, the balls from the forts pattered fiercely on the 
vessels. Half an hour was hardly over when they all steamed back 
again — one of the valiant little monitors riddled with balls and on 
the point of sinking ; and the attempt on Charleston was for this 
time abandoned. 

Dupont, who did not much enjoy the fighting done in these little 
iron turrets, with the men securely hidden from the foe, now re- 
signed his command, and Foote, who had done so well in the Mis- 
sissippi, was called there. But that brave and pious-souled com- 
mander died before he could reach his new post, and Commodore 
Dahlgren, whose improvements in cannon had caused a gun to be 
named in his honor the " Dahlgren gun," came to the place. Gil- 
more, successful at Fort Pulaski, took charge of the land forces. 
With this strong combination of Gilmore and Dahlgren, another 
attack on the defenses of Charleston began. 

General Hunter, who had commanded the land troops on Dupont's 
expedition, had left his forces encamped on Folly Island, south 
of Morris. Here hidden among high reeds and marsh-grass, the 
men had laid out roads, set up batteries, thrown up intrenchments, 
unseen by the enemy. As soon as Gilmore had made his plans he 



EFFORTS TO TAKE CHARLESTON. 535 

commanded a body of troops to land on tlie south end of Morris 
Island. At its north end was Fort Wagner, one of the strongest of 
the Charleston defenses. It guarded the south side of the outer en- 
trance to Charleston harbor. 

On the 9th of July General Strong, who had landed with 2,000 
men, began to creep silently up towards Wagner. They made an 
indecisive assault, in which half the attacking party were lost, and 
then fell back, and settled down upon the swampy, reedy island to 
await another opportunity. A few days later other troops joined 
them and it was resolved that the time for attack had come. 

On the morning of the 18th of July the storming party was 
ready to move on Wagner. Six regiments were ordered forward, 
under leadership of General Strong, who was to direct the charge. 
In the van stood the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, — the first black 
regiment, — given the post of honor on this day. Their young 
colonel, Robert G. Shaw, was at its head. He looked hardly more 
than a boy with his fair blonde face shining out in front of the 
gleaming black faces of his men. In a few eloquent words he 
called on them to prove now that freedom was worth the price that 
had been set on it. 

It was almost dark when the solid column started on a half run. 
A sheet of flame seemed to wrap the fort, as the musket volleys 
crashed from the walls, and the cannon belched its deadly contents 
into the midst of the approaching troops. Undaunted, they leaped 
the ditch, scaled the sides, and planted the grand old flag (the 
soldiers called it " Old Glory ") on the top of the wall. It waved 
there only one instant, tottered, and fell, just as the storming 
column also reeled and fell back into the ditch below. 

Colonel Shaw had fallen, struck dead at once. General Strong 
was mortally wounded. Every officer in the regiment was killed 
or wounded, when what was left of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts 
was led back under the command of Lieutenant Higginson, a boy 
of nineteen. 

Another brigade advanced to the charge, under Colonel Putnam. 
This also suffered the fate of the first. After half an hour's hard 
fighting, what remained of the brigade was forced to go back, leav- 
ing its brave leader dead on the field of honor. 

The body of Colonel Shaw was found close under the walls among 
the men he had led so well. The rebels who came out to bury the 
slain, showed their hatred of the man who had led a regiment of 



536 



STORY or OUR COUNTRY. 



negroes, by boasting that they had " buried him in a pit under his 
niggers." But no grave could be dug deep enough to hide the 
memory of the young hero. He could not lie in soil so poor that 
the remembrance of his devotion to human freedom would not 
spring greenly from its bosom. 

The costly knowledge had been gained that it was useless to take 
Wagner by assault, and Gilmore began to tr}^ other tactics. Work- 
ing patiently by day over the swampy land, where they held a 
position, the army slowly crawled nearer Wagner, each day erecting 
battei'ies a little nearer, under cover of the earthworks which they 
made at night. The yellow September moon revealed them at work 
with spade and axe, and guided by its light, the guns of the fort 
were leveled at them, often with deadly aim. Still they worked 
undauntedly on. In one place in the slimy, horrible mud, where 
a man could sink out of sight and be buried alive, if he ventured to 
tread on the dangerous surface, they drove piles, one above the 
other, till they made a firm foundation. On it they built ramparts, 
and set up a huge gun, named by the soldiers " The Swamji Angel." 




The Swamp Angel. 

Thus they worked, till the batteries were so close that they could 
send balls into both Wagner and Sumter. Then they bombarded 
both, till Sumter looked like a smoking ruin, and Wagner was bat- 
tered helpless. On the morning of the 7th of September a rebel 
deserter brought news that Wagner was empty ; tBe rebels had 
evacuated it the night before. On the 8th Gilmore's army 
marched in and took possession. Our flag waved once again in the 
entrance to Charleston harbor. We had made one step towards 
the rebel city. 



GUERRILLA RAIDS. 537 

CHAPTER L. 

GUERRILLA RAIDS. 

John Morgan. — Raid into Indiana. — A Plucky Colonel. — Ohio at Morgan's Mercy. — Cap- 
ture of Morgan. — Morgan's Escape from Prison. — Qiiantrell and his Ruffians. — Tlie Sack 
of Lawrence. — A Hideous Butchery. 

John Morgan had been a guerrilla chief in the rebel army ever 
since the war opened. He commanded a troop of horsemen as dar- 
ing as himself. His name was a word of terror to Unionists in Ken- 
tucky, where he had made several raids, stealing the horses and 
everything else he could take away. In the summer of 1863 he 
planned the most daring expedition of his whole career. It is known 
as MorganTbS raid into Indiana and Ohio. 

He crossed the Cumberland River in Tennessee with about 2,000 
thoroughly armed men on horseback, and began his march across 
the State in a northeasterly course towards Indiana. On the 4th of 
July his troops reined up in front of a little post protected with 
felled trees and earthworks hastily thrown up, behind which Colonel 
Moore with two hundred men from Michigan had intrenched them- 
selves. " Surrender ! " shouted Morgan. " If to-day were not the 
Fourth of Jnly," answered the plucky colonel inside the works, "we 
might take time to think of surrender ; " ^ and with that he ordered 
such a sharp defense that in sj^ite of his greater numbers Morgan 
was driven away, and the post was held by Colonel Moore and his 
handful of brave men. 

Morgan went next to a post at Lebanon, Kentucky, where a stout 
resistance was made by Colonel Hanson commanding there. In this 
attack Morgan's younger brother was killed. Infuriated by his death, 
his men set fire to the fort, and Hanson was forced to surrender. On 
went Morgan through Indiana, reaching that State about the middle 
of July, and frightening the quiet towns there unprepared for the 
presence of such an enemy, almost out of their wits. He took every- 
thing away that he could carry, burning the houses he had sacked, 
trampling down the crops, and destroying what he could not take with 
him. The railroads were torn up, and telegraph wires cut all along 
their march. His pathway was strewn with desolation and ruin like 
that left by a tornado. On the 14tli he crossed into Ohio, seizing 
steamboats to convey his troops over the river, and sweeping across 

1 Greeley's American Conflict tells this incident. Pollard, in The Lost Cause, puts the same 
reply into the mouth of Colonel Hanson, commanding the post at Lebanon. 



538 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the State in a wide half circle, above Cincinnati, a town which was 
too large to invade. Morgan's passage through Ohio was marked by 
the same destruction. But the people there were beginning to 
muster. When he reached the eastern boundary of Ohio, where he 
intended to cross the river into Virginia, and join his friends in Lee's 
army, he found himself in hotter quarters than were comfortable. 
Gun-boats were coming down the river to seize him. On the first 
attempt of his troops to cross to Virginia, several hundred of his men 
were taken prisoners. Morgan, with the remainder of his troop, 
wandered up the river, seeking a safe place to cross. He was at last 
brought to bay on a high bluff on the bank, and gave himself up to 
a body of United States troops who had hemmed him in. He was at 
once sent, with his officers captured with him, to the Ohio state 
prison, where their historian relates that " they were shaved and 
had their hair cut very close b}^ a negro barber. They were then 
marched to the bath-room and scrubbed, and from thence to their 
cells, and locked up." The shaving, hair-cutting, and scrubbing in 
the bath-tub, is mentioned as if it were a great indignity. But as 
they were probably very dirty after their long raid, it was no more 
than a wholesome precaution to take before admitting them into a 
state institution. As to the state prison, it was an infinitely healthier 
and better prison than any of those in which our national soldiers 
were confined in the South. Yet Morgan, who, with seven of his 
companions, dug out a passage with their pocket-knives, and escaped, 
talked bitterly of the "cruelty of the Yankee captors." 

Another guerrilla raid, made shortly after Morgan's, shows in 
much darker colors on the page of history. It was a raid into the 
State of Kansas, hated by all the rebels since the fight it had made 
to keep slavery out of its borders. A man who called himself 
Quantrell, although the name was probably a false one, used as a 
cloak to hide his crimes, rode across the line into Kansas at the head 
of a band of " border ruffians " from Missouri. Spurring across the 
undulating prairie, peaceful and fertile, they entered the town of 
Lawrence, which had been the favorite town of the " free-state " 
people ever since the days of John Brown and the Kansas war. By 
this time — the month of August, 1863 — it had grown to be a 
pleasant town, built like a New England village, with broad streets, 
bordered with pretty houses, interspersed with church spires and 
school-house belfries, which rose over the house roofs like landmarks 
set to show the growth of piety and intelligence on this new free 
soil. 



GUERRILLA RAIDS. 



539 



Into this town, peaceful as Paradise, quiet as a Sabbath-day, 
Quantrell entered, with his troop of ruffians at his back, hooting 
and yelling like a pack of painted savages. In a moment the 
peaceful scene was changed to one of wildest horror. Houses were 
burned ; stores plundered ; citizens robbed and murdered. The 
German and negro residents, especially, were killed without mercy. 
Women plead in vain for the lives of fathers, sons, husbands, over 
their very bodies. Men were shot, and while still alive their houses 
were fired, and their bodies burned in the flames. There was no 
resistance ; the surprise had been too great : it was simply a 




Lawrence, after Quantrell s Raid 

butchery. When the murderers left the town, one hundred and 
forty citizens had been slaughtered. Their bodies lay in the pools of 
blood in streets and door yards, or had become a charred mass of 
flesh and bones among the ruins of their homes. 

The raid of Quantrell was not an attack of soldiers upon armed 
men ; it was a descent of bandits upon a defenseless town. Let us 
hope, for the honor of civilized warfare, that it was not an author- 
ized expedition ; and that it was made by a robber, in the interests 
of plunder and private malignity. ^ 

1 Pollard's Lost Cause (the best Southern history of the war) does not mention Quantrell 
among their officers ; and it is but just to suppose that the generals of the army of the rebel- 
lion would not have countenanced or permitted such an outrage as tlie attack on Lawrence. 



540 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

CHAPTER LI. 

CHATTANOOGA AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 

Chattanooga Valley. —The Gatewaj' of the Mountains. — Mission Ridge. — Defeat of Union 
Troops. — "Hold Chattanooga, or starve." — Battle in the Clouds. — The Rebels' last 
stand. — Victory for the Nation. 

After Bragg was driven from Murfreesboro', in January, 1863, 
lie stopped again at Tullalioma, in the southern part of Tennessee, 
while Roseerans with his army remained at Murfreesboro'. Both 
generals had been looking towards Chattanooga, a little town lying 
in a gateway of the mountains, very near the Ihie between Ten- 
nessee and Georgia. In June, after a rest of almost six months, 
Roseerans began a march thither. Almost at that same time Bragg 
began a retreat from Tullahoraa. Roseerans approached, and Bragg 
retreated, till the rebel army was concentrated in Chattanooga. It 
was their last stronghold in Tennessee. You have marked how 
they have gradually been driven from Kentucky, through Tennessee, 
till they are now on the very borders of Georgia. At the same time 
that Roseerans approached Chattanooga, General Burnside, who 
had been sent to take a command in the West, approached from 
Cincinnati upon Knoxville, one of the centres of East Tennessee, 
and driving the rebel Buckner (the same who surrendered at Fort 
Donelson) from that city, planted the Union flag in Knoxville. For 
months the people had been forced to hide the dear flag, and now, 
all at once, in the track of Burnside's army, the whole soil seemed to 
blossom with the nation's tri-color, as if they had been planted for 
a season, and a crop of them had just sprung up. Tennessee held 
many ardent patriots who had suffered for their love of country 
more than the people of any other State. We can never honor too 
much the loyaUsts of Tennessee. Many of them wept with delight 
when they saw our soldiers marching to Knoxville, and the joyous 
people crowded to press on the soldier all they had of food or 
luxury, robbing themselves even of their scanty fare to give to the 
" defenders of the Union." 

Roseerans reached Chattanooga to find it empty. Bragg had 
gone over the boundary line of Georgia, and was strengthening 
himself for a battle in the town of Lafayette, only a few miles 
distant. 

The town of Chattanooga lies at the head of a pleasant valley 



CHATTANOOGA AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 



541 



watered by Chattanooga Creek. On th§ west of the valley is Look- 
out Mountain ; on the east is Mission Ridge, an irregular hill on 
which once stood an Indian mission church. Still east "of Mission 
Ridge lies another valley, through which runs Chickamauga Creek. 




J^'UU 4.4.S 4i.<'W^ii^ssS^^ 




Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga Valley. 

These valleys, green as the suns and rains of summer could paint 
them, were to be the last battle-grounds for the possession of Ten- 
nessee. 

Bragg had all the men that the other rebel commanders could 
possibly spare him. Lee, who had learned by his long success not 
to fear very greatly the Union army in Virginia, had sent rein- 
forcements to him under General Longstreet ; Buckner had come 
to join him on his retreat from Knoxville ; Johnston had sent all 
the men he could spare from Mississippi ; and thus Bragg's army 
now largely outnumbered that of Rosecrans, encamped at Chat- 
tanooga. 

Early in September the armies began again to approach each other. 
On the 9th of that month, a part of Bragg's advance, posted on 
Lookout Mountain, could survey the army of Rosecrans, in the 
valley town of Chattanooga below, and almost count his numbers. 
On the 19th of September, in the valley of Chickamauga, the contest 
began. 

For two days the fight raged on the borders of that little stream. 
It ended in a terrible defeat to Rosecrans, who withdrew to Chatta- 
nooga on the evening of the 20th, with 16,000 men killed, wounded, 
and missing. 16,000 men ! That would have been a large army 
in the Revolutionary War. In those days they counted their dead 
only by tens or hundreds ; to-day we count them by thousands. 



542 STORY OF OUR COLTNTRY. 

Rosecrans was blamed at ^Washington for his defeat, and although 
he was a brave soldier, and up to this time had been a successful 
one, Halleck at once deposed him, and General George H. Thomas, 
who had held a post under him, took command of the Army of the 
Cumberland. Grant, who united under his command all the Western 
armies, came on to Chattanooga to look at matters with his own eyes. 
Up to this time we owed our best successes to this quiet general, who 
had taken Donelson and Vicksburg. He now came to confer with 
Thomas, ordering General Sherman, who was his strong right arm 
in battle, to come and aid the Army of the Cumberland. That army 
was in somewhat desperate straits. Their supplies were nearly 
cut off by Bragg, and it was almost impossible even to get half- 
rations for the men and horses into Chattanooga. Before Grant 
reached Thomas, he telegraphed him, "Hold Chattanooga." Thomas 
telegraphed briefly, " I will hold it, or starve." 

It was the 24th of October when Grant arrived, and at once set 
to work to plan the relief of the army. General Hooker, with two 
corps, had been sent to reinforce Thomas. His men were fresh, de- 
moralized neither by defeat or victory. They were sent at once to 
take a ferry on the Tennessee. Holding that point, they could 
reopen the river, send their boats loaded with provisions to the 
shores near Chattanooga, thus relieving all fears of starvation. This 
was done quickly. Although the rebels made a strong resistance, they 
were overcome, driven back to Lookout Mountain, and the Union- 
ists held a foothold on the south bank of the Tennessee. 

Almost a month of quiet passed here, Thomas's army all the 
time increasing ; while Bragg, who had stripped the rebel armies 
east and west of him, before the Chickamauga battle, could raise no 
more men. Thomas, with Sherman and Hooker as his right and 
left hand, and Grant to counsel and command, prepared for the 
battle of Chattauooga. 

As he was getting ready, an insolent message came from Bragg, 
advising him to withdraw from the place. Alas, for Bragg ! His 
star is already descending, and will soon be out of sight. 

On the 24th of November Hooker went ahead to drive the enemy 
from Lookout Mountain. It was a misty day, and the top of the 
mountain was so covered with clouds that it could not be seen. 
The clouds favored the approach of Hooker's men, who clambered 
up the steep sides of Lookout as if tliey were sure of victory. On 
the top they fell upon the enemy like a whirlwind, sweeping them 



CHATTANOOGA AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 543 

over the precipice on the eastern side, and driving them down pell- 
mell, amid gulleys and steeps, into the valley below. Grant, watch- 
ing the battle from an eminence called Orchard Knob, lost sight of 
this army as they disappeared in the clouds on Lookout, and could 
only see them now and then, as the mists parted for an instant. 
Some one has called this " The Battle in the Clouds." It was a 
happy day when the boys in blue issued from the misty eyrie, pur- 
suing the retreating enemy into Chattanooga Valley. 

Next morning the rebels were posted on Mission Ridge. They 
had burned behind them the bridge over Chattanooga Creek, and 
Hooker was obliged to wait and build it before he could cross to 
renew the attack. But Sherman was now on hand, ready to win 
his share of glory. He advanced early in the morning over the 
row of ridges covered with hastily felled trees, behind which the 
rebels were preparing a desperate defense. Sherman was alone 
in this attack. Hooker was busy at bridge-building, and Grant 
was waiting for Hooker's advance, as the signal to send Thomas 
forward. 

After a fight which lasted from early morning till three o'clock 
in the afternoon, it seemed an even chance between victory and 
defeat with our brave Sherman, when four of Thomas's divisions at 
length joined him. One of these divisions was led by Phil. Sheri- 
dan, one of the heroes of our victory at Murfreesboro'. This aid to 
Sherman was enough. It was almost night when they appeared 
and charged up Mission Ridge. The enemy were driven from their 
position, and began a disorderly run down to Chickamauga Valley. 
That night Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga Valley, and Mission 
Ridge were all held by our army. Next day, Sherman and Hooker 
pursued the flying rebels. At Ringgold, part of the fugitives turned 
upon Hooker, and gave battle for a short time, then turned again to 
retreat ; we had driven them fairly from Tennessee, and Thomas 
returned to Georgia, to send troops to the relief of Burnside, who 
was suffering a siege in Knoxville. 

During the month of October, in the rest which the armies took 
between these two battles of Ohichamauga and Chattanooga^ ^^^^g 
had sent the corps of Longstreet, lent him from Lee's army in Vir- 
ginia, to drive Burnside out of Knoxville. Longstreet had been for 
a month before the town, making cautious approaches towards a 
siege. On the 28th of November he made a desperate assault on 
Fort Saunders, an outpost of Knoxville, in which he was so strongly 

35 



544 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

repulsed, that he gave up the idea of taking the town, and went 
back to Virginia. Just after this the troops sent by Thomas from 
Chattanooga arrived, and Knoxville was from that time safe. 



CHAPTER LII. 

KILPATRICK'S RAID. 



Prison Pens. — Their Horrors. — Kiipatriclt and Dahlgren. — Dalilgren lost in tlie Woods. — 
Shot from an Ambush. — Kubbing his Body. — Return of Kilpatrick. 

The horrors of the Southern prisons, where our men taken in 
battle were shut up to die lingering and fearful deaths, can never 
be fully realized. Something of their jnisery may be guessed by 
the numbers who died there. They were rightly named " prison 
pens." In many instances these places consisted of a great stock- 
ade, like that in which cattle are penned. In this our men were 
herded, often without tents or shelter, exposed to the burning suns, 
pelting rains, and stinging frosts of the varying seasons. With 
forests all about them, they were not allowed to build huts to cover 
them. In a country where gi"ain and vegetables were rotting for 
want of means to get them to market, they were deliberately starved 
to death. In these Southern prisons at Richmond, Charleston, Au- 
dersonville, Salisbury, men lost their reason and went mad from de- 
spair. Inside the pen or stockade was often a fence or paling which 
marked the " dead line." This was so called because the guards 
were ordered to shoot any prisoner who crossed the barrier. Some- 
times the guard amused themselves by picking off prisoners with 
their rifles, who had incautiously approached this limit so that a 
fold of their ragged garments or an outstretched hand was seen out- 
side the line. It is too painful to remember what our soldiers suf- 
fered in these prisons. For almost four years their cry for help 
sounded in the ears of the loyal people whose battles they had gone 
out to fight. 

In February, 1864, General Kilpatrick, who had under his com- 
mand a body of splendid cavalry belonging to the Army of the 
Potomac, started on a raid to Richmond. His object was the re- 
lease of the prisoners there. It was a daring enterprise, and there 
was little hope of its success. Our men in the rebel capital were 
confined in what was known as " Libby Prison:' It was a large 



KILPATRICK'S RAID. 



645 



brick building, once used as a tobacco warehouse, but since the war 
turned into a prison. Here our soldiers, although sheltered from 
the weather,, suffered all the horrors that filth and starvation could 
inflict. 

Kilpatrick left the main army on the 28th of February, and took 
a direct line towards Richmond. Arrived at Spottsylvania Court 
House, afterwards the scene of a battle, he divided his force. The 
smaller party, about five hundred in number, were led by Colonel 
Ulric Dahlgren, a son of the admiral now in command of the gun- 




Libby Prison. 

boats near Charleston. Colonel Dahlgren was sent to cross the 
James River, and come up to attack Richmond from the south, while 
Kilpatrick came down upon it from the other side. 

Kilpatrick went on, tearing up railway lines, cutting telegraph 
wires, and doing all the mischief he could, after Morgan's fashion in 
Indiana. By the 1st of March, he was within three and a half 
miles of Richmond, waiting eagerly to hear Dahlgren's guns booming 
their signal from the south. But he waited in vain. Young Dahl- 
gren had met only with misfortune, and at that moment his body 
lay stark and unburied in the woods not far distant. 

Dahlgren did not know the roads of the country, and after leav- 
ing Kilpatrick had taken a negro guide. The negro led them the 
wrong way, and Dahlgren's men discovering this, believed him to be 
false, and hanged him in the forest through which they were jour- 



546 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 




neying. Traveling in a hostile country, almost entirely ignorant 
of their way they did not cross the James, but touched the outer 
lines of Richmond the day after Kilpatrick arrived there, in a direc- 
tion west of him. It was dark, and the rain fell like a deluge. In 
the storm and darkness Dahlgren and about one hundred of his men 
were separated from the main body. A party of boys, led by their 

warlike school-master, had formed 
a company of militia and lay in 
ambush in the wood through 
which the lost party strayed. A 
volley from these concealed foes 
struck young Dahlgren dead, at 
the same time woundino^ several 
of his companions. Those who 
escaped the bullets wandered 
about all night, and were next 
morning taken prisoners. Fortu- 
nately the main body of the 
company were on the road toward home, and next morning reached 
the Union lines. 

As one of these youthful militia was robbing Dahlgren's body of 
his watch and other valuables, he found on his person his papers of 
instruction relating to the plan for the liberation of the prisoners in 
Richmond, the purpose of the raid. The rebel newspapers circulated 
a report that the papers revealed a dark plot to capture and murder 
Jefferson Davis and his associates in Richmond. Dahlgren's body 
was treated with every indignity. Tlie South rang with accounts of 
the " Yankee plot ;" and several barrels of gunpowder were placed 
under Libby Prison with orders to blow it up at once if any at- 
tempt at rescue or escape were made. 

Kilpatrick, hearing nothing of Dahlgren, and finding that the 
enemy had become aware of his approach to Richmond, fell back to 
the east. He was met by a force sent by General Butler from For- 
tress Monroe, and soon joined the main army. Thus ended the 
futile attempt to free the Union prisoners at Richmond. 



Bullet-proof in Woods. 



GRANT IN VIRGINIA. 



547 



CHAPTER LIII. 



GRANT IN VIRGINIA, 



Old Virginia. — Lincoln's Passes to Richmond. — First Meeting of Grant and Lincoln. — A 
Baulky Team. — Hard Times in Richmond. — The Wilderness. — " Grant not a Retreating- 
Man." — Slow " Hammering." ^ " We will light it out on this Line." 

Early in the war Governor Pickens of South CaroUna had said 
to his State, " You may pkint your cotton in peace, old Virginia 
will have to bear the brunt of battle." The North had taken up 
this prophecy, and some patriotic stationer had printed a Union en- 



''^"YOU MAY PLANT YOUR SEED rN PEACE, FOR. OLD 
VIRGINIA WILLHAVETO BEAR THE BRUNT OF BATTLE* 
GOV. PICKENS. 



"I 




POOR OLD SIMPLE VIRGINIA 






^i '\ 



-^;^ 




velope, bearing the pictnre of an old woman bowed on her staff, 
while over her back two opposing armies rushed to battle. The 
words of Governor Pickens had come true. Thus far, the deadliest 
warfare, the fiercest slaughter, has raged in Virginia, and it con- 
tinued to be so, till the rebels in Virginia had drank to the depths 
the bitter cup of secession. 

The two watch-words of the year 1864 were, " On to Richmond," 
and " On to Atlanta." The first had been the war-cry of the 
" Army of the Potomac " ever since it began to muster its hosts in 
the field. The second cry was only raised after the enemy had 
been swept from his last foothold in Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
driven to Georgia. 

You have seen by this time that while the story of the army of 
the West had been one of success since the line of the rebel army 
gave way in Kentucky, after the taking of Donelson, the story of 



548 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the East had been one of defeat only. Thousands of men had been 
lost in the swamps of the Peninsula, and in the valleys of the Rapi- 
dan and the Rappahannock, yet our army was no nearer Richmond 
in the spring of 1864 than when it first started forth bent on vic- 
tory. You have seen general succeed general, at the head of this 
grand army, failure succeed failure in its attempts to push on to- 
wards the rebel capital. 

Somebody asked President Lincoln, about these days, for a pass 
to Richmond. 

" I should be glad to olilige you," said the president, " but my 
passes are not respected. I have given passes to an army of a 
quarter of a million, and not one has got there except as prisoners 
of war." 

In the beginning of 1864, Lincoln, who was made daily more 
worried and anxious by the long and cruel series of defeats so near 
our capital, began to make more earnest inquiries about that silent 
general out West, named U. S. Grant, who was famous for saying 
nothing, and for doing a great deal. This Grant had taken Donel- 
son ; had taken Vicksburg ; had come down to Chattanooga and 
redeemed the defeat of the Chickamauga. He asked little of the 
war department ; wrote no long dispatches to government ; gave 
only short orders to his officers ; and made very brief speeches to 
his men. Already the sound of his name caused a chorus of cheers 
all over the loyal North wherever it was mentioned. Could it be 
possible that the long looked for leader, the wan for whom we had 
sought three years, could be this quiet cigar-smoking soldier, who, 
although educated at West Point, had been only a clerk in a leather 
store in Illinois, when the war began ? 

'' There is the'right sort of stuff in this western major-general," 
said Lincoln. " I should like to take a look at this little man." 
All at once, in the spring of 1864, Congress passed a resolution 
making him lieutenant-general of the United States armies, and 
summoning liim to take command of the Army of the Potomac. 
Grant came on to Washington, and the two men — Abraham 
Lincoln, President of tlie United States, and U. S. Grant, General- 
in-chief of its armies — shook hands for the first time. 

And now General Grant went to survey the Army of the Po- 
tomac. He had before him an enemy that believed itself invin- 
cible, with a leader whose name inspired victory. A long list of 
generals, McClellan, Burnside, Pope, Hooker, Meade, had preceded 



GRANT IN VIRGINIA. 549 

him, and from the chief-generalship had sunk into obscurity. It 
was a trying position for a new comer, and Grant saw its dif- 
ficulties. 

By this time he had learned that this war was not a common one, 
in the temper of the adversaries who met upon its battle-fields.. It 
was American fighting American ; it was a struggle between men 
of about the same degree of physical prowess, with leaders taught in 
the same schools, and educated together in the arts of war. And 
thus far the army of Lee, holding the advantage of position, and 
knowing well every inch of ground it occupied, had been able to use 
this knowledge against larger forces. Grant saw that to defeat this 
advantage we must use new means. " So far," he said in summing 
up the matter, " our armies have acted without concert, like a 
baulky team, no two ever pulling together. I have now determined 
to use the greatest number of troops practicable against the armed 
force of the enemy, and to hammer continuously against him, until 
by mere attrition, if no other way, there shall be nothing left him 
but an equal submission with the loyal part of our common country 
to the constitution and laws." And having made an uncommonly 
long speech for him, Grant began his " hammering," first announc- 
ing, with Biblical eloquence, " wherever Lee goes, I am going also." 

When Grant came to the field Lee was on the line of the Rapidan 
Kiver, and Meade was in liis winter-quarters on the line of the Rap- 
pahannock. The rebel army, as great as was its confidence in its 
ability to fight, was no doubt getting somewhat shaken by want of 
supplies. One of its historians says that the men had only an allow- 
ance of a quarter of a pound of meat to a man per day. The little 
cabal in Richmond which called itself the " Government of the South- 
ern Confederacy," was in want of monev. The Southern women, 
whose sympathies were with secession, had been fertile in plans for 
raising money. One fair political economist had suggested that 
every woman, whose heart was in the cause of the Southern Con- 
federacy, should cut off her hair and sell it to raise funds for the 
army. Another had suggested that all her sex should contribute 
their jewels, silver, and other valuables to the sacred cause, and ac- 
cordingly the Richmond newspapers published daily a list of ear- 
rings, brooches, silver teapots, spoons, and cream-pitchers, sent in as 
contributions to the government of Jefferson Davis.^ I do not tell 
these thmgs to laugh at them. They would be glorious in a people 

1 See Pollard's Lost Cause. 



550 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



who fought for freedom ; in a misguided section fighting to rivet 
tighter the chains on the slave, and destroy the freest nation on 
which the sun shone, they are sad as tragedy itself. 

When Grant took command, he divided the army under Meade 
into three corps, commanded by Generals Sedgwick, Warren, and 
Hancock. Burnside had been sent to join it, with a separate army, 
but was soon blended into the " Army of the Potomac." The val- 
leys of Western Virginia were guarded by General Sigel with his 
" Army of the Shenandoah," and at Fortress Monroe, where Gen- 
eral Benjamin Butler was again in command, another army was 
stationed ready to obey the call of the lieutenant-general. Grant 
visited all these armies before he prepared for action. 

On the 3d of May the Union army left its camps and crossed the 
Rapidan, over which Lee had driven Hooker the year before. For 
the first time it moved under the lead of a man who would not be 
driven back, beaten or not beaten. Almost at the same moment 
Lee's army also began to move. The Unionists came from the north ; 
the rebels from the east, making a great right angle. The point 
of this angle met on the battle-field of " The Wilderness." 

The Wilderness was well named. It was a thick and matted 
growth of scrub oaks, dwarf pines, hazel, and sassafras bushes, 

hardly higher at any 
point than a man's 
breast. Through it 
ran a network of roads 
and paths, known to 
the enemy, unknown 
to the Union army. 
Grant had hoped to 
pass through this place 
before meeting Lee, 
and fight him on 
a clean battle-ground 
beyond. But Lee 
knew too much to 
permit that. On the 
morning of May 5th, 
just as Grant reached 
the edge of the Wilder- 
Grant's Head-quarters in the Wilderness. UCSS, llis SCOUtS CamC 







GRANT IN VIRGINIA. 



551 




Hand Litter. 



in to tell him that the undergrowth was thick with rebel batteries ; 
that rebel soldiers lurked everywhere in its matted ambush. The 
enemy had chosen the ground, and the Union army must fight or 
retreat. There was no talk of retreat, and on the morning of May 
5th the ball opened. Such a fight as it was that day. The men 
struggled through the tangled bushes, to be fired at by unseen foes. 
They fell by thousands, and a constant procession issued, hour after 
hour, from out the wood, carrying stretchers on which the dead and 
wounded were borne back to _^, 

the rear. On the bloodiest 
scene of the war the merciful 
darkness fell. Neither side was 
ready to yield. Lee was look- 
ing anxiously for Longstreet, 
recently arrived from Tennessee, 
whom he relied on to reinforce 
him. To his great joy Long- 
street came up a little after mid- 
night, and together the two 
rebel officers planned the next 
day's battle. Longstreet advised the attack at two in the morning, 
before the Union army were awake ; but Grant had laid his plans 
for nearly the same hour, and both armies were in arms at almost 
the same moment next morning. Burnside had come to Grant's aid 
in the night, and the position was the same as the day before. 

Still another day of slaughter ; the sun pouring down on the field 
in midsummer heat, torturing the wounded with thirst, and making 
the long day seem like an eternity to the contending armies. Long- 
street, stopping a moment on the road in the middle of a deadly fire, 
to greet an old friend whom he had not seen since his return from 
Tennessee, was dangerously wounded by his own men and carried 
from the field. His loss disconcerted the rebels, although they 
fought on bravely. Again night fell, leaving two bruised and 
shattered armies equally unwilling to admit failure. 

The next day was Saturday. There were orders given in the 
Union army to break up the camps. After every such battle as 
that of the Wilderness, the Army of the Potomac had fallen back 
from its position. One of his officers said to Lee, " I think Grant 
is retreating." Lee always showed great wisdom in judging of the 
character of the general opposed to him. When his officer made 



552 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

this remark, he said, " I think Grant is not retreating ; he is not a 
retreating man." 

When the Army of the Potomac heard it was to go forward instead 
of back, bruised and tired and sore as it was from fight, snch a 
chorus of cheers went up as would have deafened ears not used to 
the roar of artillery. 

On they went with faces toward Richmond. The two armies 
moved with equal rapidity. After a march of twelve miles, the 
Union advance was checked. Lee's army had thrown itself again 
across the path, intrenched behind some fresh earthworks at Spott- 
sylvania Court House. It was now Monday, the 9th of May. After 
a brief delay, in which the lines were formed in order, the fight 
began. Little by little the Army of the Potomac gained on Lee's 
army. But it was slow " hammering," like steel pounding on steel.. 
To all despairing questions Grant had only one answer, " We are 
going through to Richmond. There is no doubt about that." 

On Wednesday morning there was another lull in the battle. Go- 
ing to his tent Grant wrote back to Lincoln, who was waiting with 
intense anxiety for news from the army : " The result at this time is 
much in our favor. I projyose to fight it out on this Ihie, if it takes 
all summer.'^ 

In the mean time General Butler had moved from Fortress Mon- 
roe, according to Grant's orders, to come up the James River and be 
ready to strike Richmond on the south, as the Army of the Potomac 
came from the northeast. Beauregard was in Richmond, strength- 
ening the place for the coming struggle. When he saw Butler com- 
ing, he came out of his defense and drove him back into his intrench- 
ments on the river, rendering him unable to move until the main 
army could come to join him. Grant, who had a habit of using 
homely comparisons, which everybody could understand, wrote that 
" Butler's army, although safe, is as completely shut off from further 
operations against Richmond, as if it had been in a bottle strongly 
corked." 



SHERIDAN'S RIDE. 553 

CHAPTER LIV. 

SHERIDAN'S RIDE. 

General Phil. Sheridan. — Jiibal Early's Raid. — Sheridan " Goes in." — The Ride from Win- 
chester. — The Army settles round Petersburg. — A Mine exploded. — A Pit of Death. 

On the 25tli of May a dashing leader of cavtdiy joined the army. 
This was General Phil. H. Sheridan, a favorite commander in the 
West, whom Grant had now put in command of the mounted troops 
in the Army of the Potomac. He had been out cutting telegraph 
wires and tearing up railroads in the enemy's lines, and brought in 
a large body of prisoners. His raid had led him within six miles 
of Richmond, and there in a skirmish his men had killed General 
Stuart, General Lee's favorite cavalry general, who for three years 
had been the leader of daring raids into Maryland and the Union 
sections of Virginia. 

On the 1st of June the two hostile armies, skirmishing all the 
way, stopped again at a place called Cold Harbor, very near one of 
the battle-fields, on which McClellan had met Lee in the " penin- 
sular campaign." The army was retracing its steps now over the 
Peninsula in almost its old track of 1862. For the first time it 
was driving the enemy, instead of being driven. 

Here, on the morning of June 2d, the battle of Cold Harbor be- 
gan. It was another story of terrible loss of life, and ended with- 
out deciding anything. After tliat day's fighting, and several days 
of skirmishing. Grant began to move again, this time to the south 
side of James River, where Butler waited to welcome him. Lee, 
no longer stroi^ enough to make an attack, fell back toward Rich- 
mond, and stood on the defensive. Almost at his last gasp, and 
driven to some desperate means to retrieve his sinking fortunes, 
he sent General Early, with all the cavalry he could muster, to 
invade Western Virginia and Maryland. It was barely possible 
that by throwing an army into Maryland, and threatening the 
national capital again, he might frighten Grant off toward Wash- 
ington. Accordingly, the middle of June, Early departed. Sigel 
was no longer commanding in the Shenandoah. Grant had given 
his place to General Hunter, who had so far not been very suc- 
cessful. Early tore along through Western Virginia like a whirl- 
wind, till he reached the Potomac, then up into Pennsylvania. 



554 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



where he loaded his men with spoils, and gorged them with the 
fat of the land, making his poor half-starved army rejoice in abund- 
ance. Driving before him the horses and cattle he had captured, 
he proceeded toward Frederick, where General Lew. Wallace was 
doing his best to gather a force and make a stand against him. 
On the banks of the Monocacy River, a stream near Frederick, 
Early met Wallace, and defeated him, continuing his march to- 
ward Washington. Within six or seven miles of the capital he 
paused. Here a body of troops, pushing out from Washington, en- 
countered his advance, and there was a sharp skirmish close to our 
national capital. The country began to be filled with fears for 
Washington. Early, however, distrusted his own powers, and be- 
gan to fall back across the Potomac, carrying havoc into Western 
Virginia and Pennsylvania again. For a time he swept everything 
before him, levying on the people for money, as well as cattle and 
provisions. 

It was the last of July, and Grant hearing all the time of Early's 
operations, concluded he must send a man there to stop him. Gen- 
eral Sheridan could not very well be 
spared, as he was of great service in 
Grant's own department. But then 
there was no one else who would 
make quicker work of driving Early 
out of Pennsylvania. Grant there- 
fore hurried him to the scene of ac- 
tion, giving him before starting two 
words of instruction, more forcible 
than elegant. These were simply, 
" Go in." Sheridan, who is some- 
thing like the mastiff breed of fighters, 
went in. 

He made his first appearance at 
Harper's Ferry. Early, resting from 
his last profitable raid into Pennsyl- 
vania was on the banks of a small 
Here Sheridan came to find him on the 
19th of September, and they had a battle known as the battle of 
Winchester. When it ended. Early was driven back eight miles. 
He shrewdly took up his stand on Fisher's Hill, a very strong post, 
between two high mountains, from whence he hoped to sweep Sher- 




Virginia Cavalryman. 



creek near Winchester. 



SHERIDAN'S RIDE. 



555 




Foragers at Work. 



idan out of existence, if he came to an attack. On came the gal- 
lant Phil., his fighting blood all 
alive in his veins. Again he 
struck Early such a blow, that, 
shattered and defeated, he fled 
for safety into the mountains. 
Sheridan did not care to follow 
the flying rebel. At present he 
was where he could do no harm. 
He therefore burned all the grain 
and forage on which the rebel 
army could feed themselves and 
their horses, and went up to Wash- 
ington to confer with the authorities there. 

Early heard of Sheridan's absence, and creeping down the mount- 
ains he prepared for one last blow. Our army was encamped on the 
banks of Cedar Creek, about twenty miles from Winchester. The 
attack was a complete surprise. So quietly had Early led his men 
down upon them, that the rebel yell sounded in their ears before 
the Union soldiers knew what the matter was. Frightened at the 
sudden attack, they began to run. The rebels started in hot pur- 
suit. It was more a race than a battle. At length — it was now 
late in the afternoon — Gen- 
eral Wright, commanding one 
corps, had succeeded in halt- 
ing some of his men, when a 
new actor appeared on the 
scene. It was General Sher- 
idan. On his return from 
Washington he had stopped 
for the night in Winchester, 
and hearing distant sounds of 
firing, had sprung to his horse, 
and galloped rapidly on to the 
field. 

Two thirds of the way thith- Phiiip h. sheridan. 

er he began to meet the stragglers from his retreating army. Tak- 
ing off his cap, and standing up in his stirrups he cried, " Turn 
round, boys ; turn round ! We are going back to our camp ! We are 
going to beat the enemy out of his boots." The sight of his face, 




556 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the sound of his voice, gave them new spirit. The men faced about, 
as he rode down the ranks, shouting, "Turn round! Turn round I " 
In an hour, with the help of Wright's corps already in line, they 
had beaten back their pursuers. By night the boys were in their 
camps again, and Earl}^, with no more strength left for another 
battle, was hurrying back to join Lee. Lee had felt that a decided 
success by Early might save his army in Richmond. By Sheridan's 
good fighting that hope had been foiled. And the ride to Winches- 
ter, the victory snatched from defeat, had furnished a poet with the 
subject for one of the most spirited poems of the war : — 

"Hurrah! hurrah! for Sheridan, 
Hurrah! hurrah! for horse and man. 
And when then- statues are placed on high, 
Under tlie dome of the Union sky, 
The American soldier's temple of fame, 
Then with the glorious general's name. 
Be it said, in letters both bold and bright, — 
Here is the steed that saved the day, 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight, 
From Winchester, twenty miles away." 

After the battle of Cold Harbor, Grant gave up the idea of taking 
Richmond from the north. He resolved to cross the James River 
and find the enemy's weak point on the south. He had lost a 
great number of men in these battles, but a large army still re- 
mained, and reinforcements were never wanting. The new com- 
mander of the Army of the Potomac never expressed a doubt that 
Richmond would yet be in his hands. By the 16th of June he had 
brought the army across the James, and was conferring with Butler 
about an attack on Petersburg. 

Petersburg was a point on the Appomattox River, twenty miles 
from Richmond, whence a^knot of railroads sent out branches to the 
west and southeast. It was strongly fortified, and was a point 
most important in the defense of Richmond. As soon as Lee un- 
derstood that Grant was threatening the place, he poured his army 
into Petersburg, and the fortifications were made doubly strong. 
One vain assault was made, with terrible slaughter, and then the 
Union army settled down in front of the trenches at Petersburg. 

Then a new design was formed and carried out. For a month 
the soldiers worked in the earth, like moles, digging a tunnel 
through the earth under one of the principal forts, that they might 



THE WAR IN THE WEST. 557 

undermine and blow it up with gunpowder. It was believed the 
surprise of the explosion would aid in securing an easy victory. 

By daylight on the 30th of July the mine was exploded. A ter- 
rible roar was heard, and a mass of earth, stones, guns, pieces of 
cannon, mangled human bodieis, were thrown high into the air. 
The earth around trembled as if an earthquake shook it. When 
all was over, a great crater, like that of a volcano, was seen in the 
middle of the defenses. At the same time an assault was ordered 
by the Union general. But unfortunately this advance was made 
slowly. The ground had been filled with obstructions, and before 
the first column reached the crater the rebels had rallied from their 
fright and the edge was thick with guns. A division of negro sol- 
diers led the attack. They started up the crest, but were pushed 
back into the gulf below, which became a terrible " pit of death." 
The cannon swept into it from -m^m^s^ ^~ -- 

front, right, and left. The place 
was filled with human bodies, 
black and white mingled to- 
gether ; the earth literally ran 
rivers of blood; men trying to 
climb from the pit were beaten 
back with clubbed muskets, and 
fell with crushed skulls and man- 
gled faces on the heaps of their 
slain comrades. Those who could 

see an outlet of escape, retreated Sheridan's Head-quarters at Winchester. 

without order, each seeking his own safety. It was — as General 
Grant pronounced it — " a needlessly miserable affair." This 
ended, for the year 1864, the campaign before Richmond. 




CHAPTER LV. 

TPIE WAR IN THE WEST. 

Red River Expedition. — Forrest's Raid. — Butchery at Fort Pillow. — Secret Societies. — 
End of the Struggle in Missouri. 

Let us leave Grant in snug winter-quarters, his army in their 
huts, stretching for miles around the outer defenses at Petersburg, 
while we see what has been going on elsewhere. 



558 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Down in Louisiana the war had been raging. In March, General 
Banks, who was commanding at New Orleans, and keeping open the 
passage of the Mississippi, was ordered to go up the Red River into 
the interior of Louisiana, and try to bring the rebels of that State 
and Texas to repentance for their treasonable behavior. Accord- 
ingly, Banks with an army, and Commodore Porter with his gun- 
boats, started on the " Red River Expedition." They met with 
alternate victory and defeat in their engagement with the rebels on 
the river course, but after many adventures, Banks finally returned 
in April, without having accomplished anything. 

In this very month of April the shores of the great Mississippi 
were also the scene of a dreadful slaughter, which filled the North 
with horror. General N. B. Forrest was a leader of the rebel cav- 
alry of the same stamp as the notorious John Morgan. When 
Morgan was making his famous raids in Kentucky, in 1862, Forrest 
was ranging in like manner through Tennessee, stripping the State 
of horses, cattle, provisions, filling the Unionists everywhere with 
dread at the very sound of his name. In March, 1864, he started 
from Northern Mississippi on one of the longest expeditions he had 
yet made. The largest part of our army of the West was concen- 
trated at Chattanooga, leaving West Tennessee comparatively at 
Forrest's mercy. He went through the State like a whirlwind, ruin 
and famine stalking in his track, to finish the destruction of the 
wretched inhabitants. He passed up through Tennessee into Ken- 
tucky, carrying the same desolation everywhere, until he reached 
Paducah, on the Ohio River, the first place Grant had taken w-hen 
he came down to Cairo in 1862. There were a small body of men 
in Fort Anderson, an outpost of Paducah ; and Forrest, made in- 
solent by his triumphant journey through Tennessee and Kentucky, 
demanded its surrender in these words, " If you surrender, you shall 
be treated as prisoners of war ; if I have to storm your works, exjject 
no quarter^ 

In spite of this bloody threat and his small numbers. Colonel 
Hicks, who commanded the fort, refused to surrender. Two or three 
gun-boats lying off in the river,. prepared to second his defense of 
the post. Forrest stormed, but found the place too strong for him, 
and went down the Mississippi, breathing oaths of vengeance on any 
place weak enough to yield to his assault. 

Fort Pillow, just above Memphis, victoriously occupied by our 
troops in the march toward Vicksburg, was his next point of attack. 



THE WAR IN THE WEST. 559 

At this time there were only five hundred men there, under com- 
mand of Major Booth. 

Fully half these troops were negroes, on whom Forrest's chief 
desire for vengeance fell. Arriving before the weakly garrisoned 
fort with his great force of cavalry, he demanded its surrender with 
the same threat in case of their refusal that he had made at Padu- 
cah. Major Booth refused to consider the surrender, and fought 
bravely till he was killed at his post. Major Bradford succeeded 
him, and Forrest again called the fort to give up, and again met 
with a refusal. On this, the rebels made one tremendous attack and 
burst into the fort. The garrison, which threw down its arms on 
the entrance of the conquerors, was at once put to the sword. Men, 
women, and children were murdered in cold blood. Those who 
sought to flee to the river, were followed, and shot or stabbed with- 
out mercy. The negro soldiers were killed with most inhuman 
barbarity, some of them nailed to the floor with the cloth of their 
tents, and burned to death ; wounded men were held up to be shot 
at, till a bare handful of prisoners remained. Some of these. Major 
Bradford among the rest, were taken away, to be shot next day. 
The butchery at Fort Pillow will remain as one of the worst horrors 
of a war made always more horrible by the unrestrained temper of 
men accustomed as slave-holders to wreak their passions on the 
iinresisting slave. The murderers at Fort Pillow had declared that 
they would not recognize the negroes as prisoners, and killed the 
whites because they were found " fighting with the negroes." Yet 
only a few months later, in the last " congress of the Confederate 
States," there was a hot debate on the subject of arming the negroes 
still left them, and if the rebels could have been as certain of the 
attachment of their slaves to the cause of their masters as to the 
cause of freedom, in all human probability their last resort would 
have been to have " fought with their negroes." 

The battle of Pea Ridge, in the spring of 1862, had been pretty 
effectual in driving the rebels from Missouri. There had been one 
severe raid by the rebel General Marmaduke, in which he was met 
by our troops and forced to retreat to Arkansas. But the rebel 
element was still alive in Missouri, though working secretly. After 
his defeat at Chickamauga, General Rosecrans had repaired to St. 
Louis, and found that secret societies known as " Sons of Liberty," 
and " Knights of the Golden Circle," had been formed there, and 
were in active' league with the rebel army. That undaunted sol- 

36 



560 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

dier, Sterling Price, was lurking on the borders of Arkansas, ready 
to invade the State when these plotters were ripe to receive him. 
Rosecrans wrote again and again to Washington, of his informa- 
tion of the intentions of the traitors, and at last got together a 
foi-ce sufficient to give Price a warm welcome. In September Price 
made his last attempt to drag Missouri again into the clutches of 
treason. He was met with such firmness and energy that he dared 
make no demonstration, but began a retreat. Nearly all the month 
of October was spent in retreat and pursuit, by rebels and Union- 
ists, till at last Price trailed the last remnant of his tattered ban- 
ners down through the borders of Kansas into Western Arkansas, 
and there watched hopelessly the final dying out of the struggle 
in Missouri. 

CHAPTER LVI. 

NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 

A Confederate Navy. — Ships built in English Ports. — The Alabama. — Fight with tlie Kear- 
sarge. — Story of a Brave Sailor. — Collins violates Neutrality Laws. — The Battle of Mobile 
Baj'. — Farragut lashed to the Main-top. — The Gulf is Ours. 

In the beginning of the contest the rebels had passed sounding 
resolutions in favor of building a " Confederate Navy ; " and as the 
number of naval ofiicers in the United States service who had de- 
serted their government for the cause of rebellion, was very large, 
they did not lack able naval commanders in the vSouth. They had, 
as you remember, made a very creditable iron " ram," \\\e ^lerrimack^ 
out of a United States man-of-war, captured early in the war, and 
they had done some very good ship-building under great disadvan- 
tages. But they would have early been brought to a stop in their 
naval enterprises, for want of means to carry them on, if it had not 
been for the aid received from a party in England, whose sympa- 
thies were largely with the rebels. It is only fair to believe that 
Enghsh monarchists do not rejoice in the success of a republican 
form of government, and that the sympathy these Englishmen felt 
and showed with the rebellion was caused by the interest in the fail- 
ure of a nation whose system of government was so at variance with 
their own. With the real issue ot the seceding States, the right to 
hold slaves, they had no sympathy. Almost every Englishman — 
let us say this to his honor — had looked with horror on the slave- 
holding policy of the United States. 



NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 561 

Notwithstanding all our government could say or do, ship-build- 
ing for the rebels was begun and carried on in English ports. At 
Liverpool a builder named Laird, was engaged in furnishing ships 
to rebel " privateers." One of the most noted of these privateer 
captains was Raphael Semmes, who began his career in the Sumter^ 
in the year 1861. The Sumter was sunk by a Union vessel early in 
her career, and Semmes went straightway to Laird for a new vessel. 
This vessel, named the Alabama., in honor — or dishonor — of 
Semmes's native State, set out on her cruise in 1862. She princi- 
pally haunted foreign ports and waylaid helpless American mer- 
chantmen bound on long voyages. The Alabama sailed under a 
British flag, and was manned for the most part by English seamen. 
When the unsuspecting merchantman, decoyed by the flag of a 
friendly nation approached near enough, Semmes opened his guns 
upon her, at the same time running vip the rebel stars and bars 
above the British ensign. In her career of plunder this one ship 
had captured over sixty vessels, destroyed forty-five others, and 
taken millions of dollars worth of property. 

In June, 1864, grown bold from long success, Semmes lay in the 
harbor of Cherbourg in France. Outside the harbor was the 
stanch ship Kearsarge., named for a mountain of New England, and 
commanded by Captain Winslow, a loyal North Carolinian. 

The boastful Semmes sent a notice of his desire to fight the 
Kearsarge. Winslow accepted the challenge with delight. On the 
morning of the 19th of June, 1864, the Alabam,a steamed out of the 
harbor to where the Kearsarge awaited her. 

The vessels did not make a close approach, but steaming round 
and round in wide circles, kept firing at each other. In an hour's 
time t\\Q Alabama \vas sinking, while the Kearsarge., erect and unhurt, 
not one man killed on board her, was left victorious. I should not 
have said not one man was killed. One brave sailor, named William 
Gowin, had his leg shattered at the knee early in the fight. He 
concealed his injury as much as possible, and refusing to go below, 
sat on deck waving his hat over his head, crying out words of en- 
couragement to his comrades till the fight was over. Then he was 
taken to hospital and died there, saying, " I am willing to die for my 
country since our ship got the victory," When defeat was certain, 
Semmes and his men leaped from their sinking vessel. Most of 
them were picked up by an English yacht, come out from the har- 
bor to see the fight, and so escaped being taken prisoners. 



562 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

A few montLs later another of these EngUsh built ships, the 
Florida, who had been lurking near the American coasts, was also 
captured. The rebel commander, John Moffit, is accused not only 
of robbing the merchant ships, but also of breaking open private 
baggage of the passengers. One of our historians ^ relates of Moffit, 
that when a boy at school, one of his companions wrote these verses 
about him : — 

" And here 's Johnny Mofht, as straight as a gun, 
If you face hiui squai'e up he '11 turn round and run ; ' 
The first boy in school, if thieving and lies, 
Instead of good scholarship, bear off the prize." 

It was certainly not a good character for John Moffit to bring away 
from school, especially if he had for a copy in his writing-book, 
"The child is father of the man." 

At last, in the fall of 1864, the Florida was in San Salvador Bay 
on the Brazilian coast. In the harbor also was the ship Wachusett, 
named like the Kearsarge for a New England mountain, and com- 
manded by Captain Collins. Captain Collins had remonstrated 
with the Brazilians for allowing a vessel engaged in piracy against 
the United States to enter its harbor, and our consul had repeated 
the remonstrance. Finding the Brazilians took no notice of him, 
Collins tried to induce the Florida to come out and fight, but she 
knew her weakness, and skulked for protection among the Brazilian 
vessels. At length, on the midnight of October 6th, the Wachuseft, 
putting on a full head of steam, ran right into the Florida, dealing 
her a staggering blow. Then our men boarded her, and fastening a 
stout rope to her bows, the Waehusett steamed off to the open sea 
with the Florida in tow. 

The Brazilians did not find out the affair till both vessels were 
on their way to Hampton Roads, Virginia. But this capture of a 
ship in a neutral harbor was contrary to the laws of nations, and 
resented by the government of Brazil. Mr. Seward, the secretary 
of state, was forced to apologize, and Collins was both blamed and 
pi'aised for his daring. 

It is so long since we have heard from our brave Farragut that 
I am sure you will be glad to hear about him again. He was 
still down in the Gulf of Mexico in the year 1864, with four iron- 

1 Lossing, Hist- Civil War. 



NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. 



563 



clads and four gun-boats under his command, when word came 
that Mobile Bay must be taken. General Can by — one of our 
brave officers who had been doing rather a thankless work in Texas 
during the war — sent all the troops he could spare to Farragut, 
and on the 6th of August his fleet was steaming up the channel. 

Mobile Bay was now the only strong point in the Gulf, and its 
convenient harbor had formed a snug nursery for the young navy of 
the rebels, where many boats had 
been built and repaired for active 
service against the Union. There 
was not a very large fleet here at 
this time, hovvever, to confront the 
national vessels, but Fort Morgan 
on one side and Forts Gaines 
and Powell on the other, Avere 
prepared to sweep Farragut as he 
passed. The brave old admiral 
lashed himself aloft in the main- 
top of his flag-ship, the Hartford^ 
that he might see clearly over the 
smoke of the firing. By his side 
was a tube reaching to the deck, through which he shouted his com- 
mands below. Some smiling young cherub that sits up aloft, must 




Farragut. 




/ 



^-^ 




have guarded him from the shot and shell that fell thick around him, 
as his flag-ship went into the deadly fire. The first of our iron-clads 
that entered the channel struck a torpedo placed there to explode 



564 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

and blow up the ship that entered. A sullen roar, a great water- 
spout, and down went the Tecumseh, with her captain and crew. 
After that the fleet approached more cautiously, each vessel fearing 
that her fate might be that of the Tecu7nseh. But before evening 
the rebel fleet was dispersed, the forts passed, and no more torpedoes 
encountered. Then Farragut began upon the forts. One after 
another they gave in. First, Morgan surrendered, then Gaines, 
while Powell was blown up and abandoned by its garrison. On 
the 9tli of August Farragut's vessels rode safely in Mobile Bay, 
and the city lay at his mercy. Satisfied with this success for the 
present, he did not attack the city. Canby's troops were needed to 
fill up the army in Tennessee and Mississippi, and were sent back 
there, leaving the vessels to hold Mobile Bay, — 

" For the mighty Gulf is ours, 
The Bay is lost and won! " 

And the last stronghold in the Gulf was again a part of the nation. 



CHAPTER LVII. 

ON TO ATLANTA. 

William T. Sherman. — The Three Annies. — Rebel Generals. — The Army fights its Way to 
Atlanta. — McPherson killed. — " Atlanta is Ours and fairly won." — Designs against Nash- 
ville. — " Old Reliable." — Nashville saved. 

When Grant left Chattanooga to don the fresh uniform of lieu- 
tenant-general of the army of the United States, and to direct in 
person the movements of the Army of the Potomac, General Will- 
iam T. Sherman went with him as far as Cincinnati. Grant had 
one admirable quality of a good general : he could see military 
talent in other men. He had early seen the great ability of Sher- 
man, iind he now gave him full control in the West. Three armies, 
— the Tennessee, under McPherson ; the Ohio, in command of Gen- 
eral Schofield ; and the Cumberland, with Thomas at its head, were 
united under his command. 

In 1861 Sherman had told the government that it would take an 
army of 200,000 men to carry the stars and stripes to the Gulf of 
Mexico, and sweep those States clean of rebellion. The government 
called him " crazy ; " and some of its oflicials declared the rebellion 



ON TO ATLANTA. 



565 




William T. Sherman. 



would be over in a month or two. Now, after almost four years our 
acmy had only just reached the boundaries of Georgia, while thou- 
sands upon thousands were left 
dead along its line of advance 
through Kentucky and Tennessee. 
Now, when Sherman demanded 
100,000 men to finish the work 
Grant had begun, they were at 
once furnished, and his request 
was thought a remarkably sane 
and reasonable one. 

The Union army was at Chat- 
tanooga wben tlieir last battle had 
been fought and won. South of 
them, at Dalton in Georgia, was 
General Joseph Johnston, next 
to Lee, probably, the ablest soldier in the rebel army. The bold 
mountain steep of Rocky-faced Ridge interposed as a barrier be- 
tween him and his foes. With him were three able generals: 
Hardee, Hood, and Polk. Hardee, 
an able tactician ; Hood, impul- 
sive and fearless ; Polk, a better 
soldier than a minister of Christ's 
peaceful doctrines. 

Beyond Johnston, to the south, 
lay Atlanta. Georgia was now the 
co-rival of Virginia in importance 
to the Confederacy ; and her heart 
was Atlanta. This town was the 
centre of many radiating railways, 
that poured in grain and beef from 
the surrounding country ; it was 
the centre, also, of a circle of smaller manufacturing towns, sending 
in cloth, shoes, cannon, powder, and bullets. All that was needed 
to feed, clothe, and equip an army, was found in this flourishing city. 
Sherman's keen eye saw through all obstacles the straight }-oad to 
Atlanta, and when his army of 98,800 men were in marching order, 
announced that he was going to move upon that place. 

Grant's advance to Richmond was begun on the 3d of May. 
Sherman's move on Atlanta was one day later. I fancy this 




Leonidas Polk 



566 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



united movement was fixed upon when the two generals conferred 
together in the cars, on the way to Cincinnati. In the warm May 
weather, the troops struck their tents at Chattanooga, and fell into 
the ranks. The word " March ! " repeated by hundreds of voices, 
resounded along the lines, and " On to Atlanta " went the army. 

The enemy were at first inclined to fight at Dalton, but McPher- 
son was sent round behind them to tear up a railroad, and cut off 
supplies, if they waited to give battle ; and the cunning Johnston, 
seeing this design, fell back farther south to the village of Resaca. 
To Resaca followed Sherman, where the enemy were in fighting 
order. 

Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield burst here upon Hood, Hardee, 
and Polk, — foemen quite worthy of their steel. There the Union 
army counted their dead by thousands, while the rebels, in a better 
guarded position, suffered much less. But next day — it was now 
grown to be the loth of May — the rebels fell back from Resaca to 
a new position behind a rocky ridge near Cassville ; and Sherman, 
following quickly, had taken a new stride on his journey. Again 
Johnston left his position, and crossing a little river behind him. 




■jS^wl TjV 



Summit of Kenesaw Mountain. 



went to another row of hills in the direct line south. On these 
hills the rebels again turned to face Sherman, and at New Hope 
Church, close by the town of Dallas, another deadly battle raged. 
Two days of hot fighting, and Johnston again fell back to Kenesaw 
Mountain, the highest of another nest of hills, through which the 
railway track wound to Atlanta. Here, drawn up in the most 
fovniitlable array they had yet presented, the enemy fronted Sher- 
man again. Atlanta was to be fought for inch by inch. Sherman 



ON TO ATLANTA. 567 

assaulted these firm ranks on the. mountain-side, but was beaten 
back with terrible loss, while the rebels, behind their intrench- 
ments, were comparatively safe. They lost one officer, however, 
who counted for many men ; this was General Bishop Leonidas 
Polk, whose name we have heard ever since secession first raised 
its banners. 

Since Kenesaw could not be taken by assault, Sherman tried his 
favorite method of getting behind the enemy to cut off his supplies. 
Johnston at once perceived his movement, and fell back again, this 
time across the Chattahoochee River. Another stride, and Sherman 
was over the river after him. 

Here a fortunate event happened for Sherman. General Johns- 
ton, a very skillful and cautious leader, was removed by Jefferson 
Davis, and General Hood was put in his place. The rebel army 
had now lost Johnston and Polk. Hood, brave but reckless, was 
left alone to meet Sherman, who was a fox as well as a lion in the 
field of war. 

The last natural bar now between our array and Atlanta was 
Peach Tree Creek, a small branch of the Chattahoochee. Here 
Sherman fought Hood, this time shattering his army terribl3\ 
After this only the fortifications about Atlanta presented them- 
selves. On the 21st of July McPherson's division swung round to 
the southeast, and encamped three miles from the city. But this 
advance cost Sherman one of the most valuable lives in the country. 
The gallant McPherson, commander of the Army of the Tennessee, 
was shot dead in a wood, just outside the rebel lines. 

From the last of July until the 1st of September, fighting, skir- 
mishing, and manoeuvring succeeded each other. In the opening of 
September, — the fourth month since Sherman left the borders of 
Tennessee, — Hood abandoned Atlanta, first setting fire to his stores 
and some of the valuable manufactories. On the 2d of September 
Sherman rode into the town, still smoking with the fires Hood had 
lighted there. The happy general telegraphed to his chief : " At- 
lanta is ours, and fairly won." The hardest blow yet dealt at rebel- 
lion, had fallen. .The most despairing grew hopeful in the sunshine 
of this victory. 

General Hood had been placed in power to retrieve what Johns- 
ton had lost. In return, he had lost Atlanta. Desperate from his 
failure, he started on a bold push back through Georgia, to Nash- 
ville, Tennessee. Nashville was the source from which Sherman 



568 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

would get his supplies, by way of Chattanooga. Hood hoped to 
starve his enemy in Georgia, by cutting him off from his base in 
Tennessee. It was the last hazard of a desperate man. If he were 
successful, it might change the whole fortune of war. But Sherman 
was on the alert, and quick to fathom his designs. He gave to 
Thomas the charge of following Hood, and keeping him out of mis- 
chief. Then he proceeded in Georgia to carry out a favorite project 
of his own. 

In the mean time, Hood spurred on toward Nashville. Ahead 
of him, with a fine body of mounted men, rode N. B, Forrest, who 
knew the best roads in Tennessee as well as his alphabet. The 
army under Hood, reinforced all along the route, grew larger daily. 

Thomas marched rapidly, and reached Nashville in October. His 
army was now much less than Hood's, and sending North at once 
for reinforcements, he waited for them to come to his aid. Schofield 
was also on the way to join him from the South. The chief fear 
was lest Hood might attack, and swallow him up in his march to 
Nashville. Thomas strengthened Murfreesboro' so hardly won from 
Bragg two jeavs before, and waited anxiously — all his energies 
alive to meet the coming event, — with the fate of Tennessee, per- 
haps of the war, restin*^' on his shoulders. There were few men 
better fitted than he to bear such burdens. His friends had long 
since named him " Old Reliable ; *' and the soldiers who had felt 
his fatherly care for their safety and comfort, called him " Pap 
Safety," or " Old Pap Thomas." One of the best and ablest men 
of the war, sharing the confidence of the nation with Grant and 
Sherman, was this watchful man at Nashville, — General George 
H. Thomas. 

On the 7th of November the first guns of the conflict were heard 
at Franklin, a village lying south of Nashville. Schofield, hasten- 
ing to join Thomas, had been caught there by Hood. Beset by 
much larger numbers, all Schofield could hope was to get away as 
safely as he could to Nashville. The day was spent in fight, which 
bore heavily on Hood ; and next morning Schofield had joined with 
his leader. On the same day reinforcements from jNIissouri arrived, 
and Thomas ceased to be anxious. 

On the 2d of December Hood began the siege of Nashville. The 
weather was bitter cold. The rebels shivered in the tents outside, 
and the frozen earth hardly yielded to their spades. But about the 
middle of the month the cold abated. Mild weather came, and the 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 569 

frozen earth became liquid mud. On the 14th of December the 
Union army came out to give battle. The plan of attack was like 
Thomas, strong, calm, and effectual. When the early winter twi- 
light fell. Hood had been driven back from his position, and every- 
thing looked fair for the next day. Next morning fresh cannon 
bursts gave warning of the reopening of the fight. This day there 
was no doubtful success. Twilight saw the rebels in full retreat 
toward Franklin. On they went pell-mell, throwing away as they 
ran, their guns, knapsacks, blankets, all that would impede their 
flight. Bull Run was forever avenged. Our troops pursued till 
darkness stopped the race. Next day the pursuit was continued. 
Thomas strongly hoped to capture all Hood's army. On this point 
Hood disappointed him. Gathering his troops together, he formed 
now an orderly retreat, and crossed the Tennessee with what was 
left of his army. 



CHAPTER LVm. 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

Tiie Army begins its March. — The Army Battle Hj'mn. — The Land of Plenty. — Prison Pen 
at Millen. — " Old Glory." — The Sight of the Sea. — Lincoln's Christmas Present. — Sher- 
man goes North. — Burning of Columbia. — Charleston restored to the Nation. — Nearing the 
End of the March. — Tiie Forlorn Hope of Johnston. — It is baffled at Bentonsville. — Sher- 
man joins Grant. 

Fltlly trusting in the ability of Thomas to foil the designs of 
Hood in Tennessee, Sherman proceeded to carry out his darling 
project. This was a march to the Atlantic coast, through Georgia, 
thence north through the Carolinas to join Grant in Virginia. Sher- 
man, like most other wise soldiers and statesmen, was convinced 
that the surest way to end the cruelty of the war was by decisive 
and resolute measures. He believed in invading the enemy's coun- 
try and destroying the resources which helped them continue the 
war. Georgia was the great centre of supplies. To destroy the 
crops of this season, while it would make a few months of great 
distress, might save many years of long misery. As Sherman him- 
self said, " war is cruelty, and you cannot refine it." He therefore 
took the promptest means to put an end to it. 

On the 15th day of November our army was ready for their 
march to the sea, their faces set joyously toward the rising of the 



570 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

sun. There were only twenty days' provisions in the supply wagons 
that went with them. The men were ordered to live on the enemy's 
country, finding food for themselves and fodder for their horses in 
the region through which they marched. On the right were the two 
army corps, led by General Howard. On the left two others, under 
the leadership of General Slocum. About these armies hovered a 
body of cavalry under General Kilpatrick. Moving from one part 
of the army to another was Sherman, the head and front of this 
grand '•'•march to the sea.'"' Behind them as they advanced, sixty 
thousand strong, the smoke and glare of burning buildings in 
Atlanta shed a terrible grandeur on the scene. All the stores, pub- 
lic buildings, and manufactories that had remained after Hood's 
evacuation, were now consumed by Sherman's orders. The bands 
struck up the army battle-hymn, with the quaint chorus, " John 
Brown's body lies mouldering in his grave ; but his soul is march- 
ing on," — and the tramp ! tramp ! of soldiers marching out from 
Atlanta blended with the strains, while countless voices all over the 
land took up the chorus as its heroes m'arched to restore peace to 
the nation. Old John Brown had become the apostle of the war. 
The name of this poor old man, so lately dying a despised death on 
the gallows, with few bold enough to declare themselves his friends, 
had rung over hundreds of battle-fields and become one of the 
watch-words of freedom. "■ The mills of God grind slowly " for the 
most part ; but between the years 1859 and 1864, the Divine mills 
had ground exceeding fast. 

Th6 army moved on into a land which seemed as Canaan to the 
Jews, " overflowing with milk and honey," The soldiers, previously 
fed on salt pork and hard-tack, and black coffee cooked in iron ket- 
tles over camp-fires, came at once into abundance. Cut off from 
railroads, the people of central Georgia had not been able to send 
their crops to market. Pits hastily dug and filled with sweet pota- 
toes ; corn-fields rich with yellow corn ; barnyards crowded with 
turkeys and chickens ; overfed cattle ; ■ cows dropping creamy milk ; 
pigs ranging in the woods gorging themselves with nuts and acorns, 
— all these dainties in the way of food presented themselves to the 
palate of the hungry soldiers. Now the night camps were scenes of 
revelry. Fat turkeys, impaled on sharp sticks, revolved over the 
coals ; roasts of beef dropped savory juices ; cream softened the flavor 
of the bitter coffee ; eggs were beaten into omelets ; sweet potatoes 
roasted in hot ashes ; the fortunate messmate who had a genius for 



THE MAllCH TO THE SEA. 



571 



cookery, received the blessings of his companions. Thus luxuriously 
fed, they Avent on to Milledgeville, the capital of the State. Little 
resistance met them on their way. A few regiments here and there, 
scattering cojnpanies of militia, who had responded to the frantic ap- 
peals of the Southern leaders to " put every obstruction in the path 
of the enemy," were all that encountered Sherman's army. From 
Milledgeville they went to Millen, where one of the Southern " prison 




Prison Pen at Millen. 

pens " was situated. Here in the midst of all the plenty through 
which the army had marched, our poor soldiers had died of starva- 
tion. The Southern newsjjapers and leaders had pleaded in excuse 
for their suffering, that lack of food for themselves had prevented 
a full supply to their prisoners. 

When Sherman reached Millen, the Union prisoners had been 
taken away, and the soldiers were disappointed in their hope of res- 
cuing them. Much has been said of the lawless march of Sherman's 
army through Georgia, and no doubt much happened that was be- 
yond Sherman's control.^ But the sight of that prison pen at Millen, 
and the remembrance of our soldiers who had starved there in the 
midst of plenty, tended to excite in the breasts of their fellows a 
desire for retribution which military discipline could hardly have 
checked. 

From Millen, they continued straight on to the Atlantic. The 
end of the march was at Savannah, where General Hardee, with 
what forces he could collect, awaited him. Part of Admiral Dahl- 

1 There were a class of men who followed in Sherman's track, who were not a part of the dis- 
ciplined army, and often committed unauthorized depredations. Such a class almost invariably 
follows the track of an army after war has been prolonged. These M'ere called " bummeis," and 
were supposed to feed on the fat of the spoils in this Georgia campaign. 



572 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

gren's fleet lay at the mouth of the Ogeechee River just out of range 
of the guns of Fort McAllister, which protected the city. 

The army approached Savannah on the 10th of December. Sher- 
man sent General Hazen to surround Fort McAllister, and on the 
13th ordered hira to assault. The fort was triumphantly carried in 
a few hours, and our fleet in the harbor saw " Old Glory " waving 
gallantly over the ramparts. On the same evening, Sherman moved 
into the fort, and made his head-quarters there. A few days later, 
news came that Hardee had secretly embarked his army in boats, 
and had left for Charleston, South Carolina. Sherman had hoped 
to capture the army in Savannah, and was disappointed at hearing of 
Hardee's escape ; but the town, rich in spoils of war, remained to him. 
He entered it on the 20th of December, his men uttering irrepressible 
shouts of delight as they reached the end of their march. Sherman at 
once telegraphed to Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas 
gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns, plenty 
of ammunition, and 25,000 bales of cotton." I think President Lin- 
coln never had a more delightful Christmas present, even when, as 
a boy, he hung his stocking up in the chimney corner. 

After a rest from their long journey in Savannah, Sherman asked 
Grant's permission to continue the march of his army through North 
and South Carolina. Grant's first plan had been to send for Sher- 
man to join him by water from Savannah, but he gladly acceded to 
Sherman's wishes. The army crossed the Savannah, and set foot 
on the soil of that State, which above all others had planned the 
destruction of the Union. 

Sherman had a shrewd way of dividing his armies, and threaten- 
ing several points at once, so that the enemy were puzzled to guess 
in what direction he meant to march in force. Beauregard and 
Hardee, now together in Charleston, were inclined to believe that 
he was coming upon them. But Sherman saw that Columbia in the 
interior of the State was the outer wall of Charleston ; if that yielded, 
the latter town would probably fall into his hands. He therefore 
marched upon Columbia, where Wade Hampton, a rebel cavalry 
leader, was trying to rally for a defense. He failed in this, and his 
rear was rapidly leaving the town, when Sherman reached it. The 
town was ours, and the mayor, coming out, received Sherman as its 
conqueror. The streets of the city were filled with bales of burning 
cotton, set on fire by Hampton's orders. The white flakes, flying 
in the wind, set many buildings on fire. These, added to the public 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 



573 



buildings which Sherman destroyed from the cruel necessity of war, 
made a terrible conflagration. In a few hours the town was a mass 
of ruins, which left the major part of the inhabitants homeless and 
shelterless. Such were some of the miseries the war brought on the 
heads of those who brought the terrible conflict upon the nation. 
Alas ! that many innocent ones suffered equally with the guilty. 

Sherman's calculation was correct. The fall of Columbia settled 
that of Charleston. On the 17th of February — the same day that 
Sherman entered Columbia — Beauregard and Hardee left the chief 
city of secession, and went to find General Joseph Johnston, who 
was mustering in North Carolina for one final -effort. 

It was a day of jubilee when Charleston was ours. Into the city, 
covered all over with scars of the sieges it had withstood, our troops 




Ru s at Cha eston 



marched joyously. Almost as soon as they entered a party was 
dispatched to Sumter, and the flag unfurled over its broken walls, 
while a thundering chorus of cheers went up from the men who had 
worked so long for the reward of seeing it planted there once 
more. 

The end of the long journey drew near. Sherman might soon 
hope to shake hands with his superior officer on the soil of Virginia. 
Grant had already sent a body-guard to meet him by the route 
through Wilmington. Wilmington, a little back from the mouth 



674 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

of Cape Fear River, was guarded by Fort Fisher, just at the river 
entrance. Bragg was commanding at Wihnington, greatly to the 
displeasure of some of the rebels, who had been indignant at his 
want of success in Tennessee. One of their newspapers had lately 
announced, " General Bragg is in command at Wilmington. Good- 
by, Wilmington." 

In January Grant sent General Terry with an army to take Fort 
Fisher, and so clear the way to Wilmington. On the 15th of Jan- 
uary, the fort, after a gallant siege, fell into our hands. General 
Schofield, who had been with Thomas in Nashville, was sent to join 
Terry at the fort, and* as soon as he reached it the two officers began 
together their advance to Wilmington. The resistance on their way 
to that city was slight. On the 22d of February, the anniversary 
of Washington's birthday, Schofield entered Wilmington. Bragg 
had before this run away to join General Johnston. 

Eighty-four miles from Wilmington lay the town of Goldsboro'. 
Here Schofield was to go on to meet Sherman, who was marching 
upon it from South Carolina. At the same time another moving 
column of Union troops was to come from Newbern — which we 
had held ever since Burnside took it, — also to unite with Sher- 
man at Goldsboro'. Fancy, then, these three marching columns ; 
Sherman from the southwest, Schofield from the south. General 
Cox from Newbern, almost due east, all converging on this central 
meeting-point at Goldsboro'. Here General Joseph Johnston was 
straining every nerve for a final contest. It was like a drowning 
man catching at a straw. He had with liim, Bragg from Wilming- 
ton, Hardee from Savannah, Beauregard from Charleston, and Wade 
Hampton, with the cavalry he had vainly endeavored to rally at 
Columbia. The shattered remnant of Hood's army from Nashville, 
had joined him. Together they made a formidable array. 

But affairs looked dark for the rebels. Their army in Tennessee 
had been broken up, Lee was beleaguered by Grant in Virginia ; 
Sherman had conquered Georgia and South Carolina ; if he now 
joined Grant, Lee's army would be captured. The only hope of 
the rebels was that Johnston might defeat one or all of the armies 
marching on Goldsboro', prevent their junction with the Army of 
the Potomac, then go north and help Lee drive Grant from his post 
near Richmond. It was a desperate last chance, and might be suc- 
cessful. Johnston had gathered in all about 40,000 men, and 
thrown himself between Sherman and Goldsboro'. 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 575 

In the mean time, Sherman, with an occasional fight between the 
advance of his army and the rear of some of the columns who were 
hurrying to join Johnston, marched rapidly on. He did not antici- 
pate the struggle Johnston was preparing for him. He felt as if he 
had nearly reached the end of his journey and all fear of serious in- 
terruption was over. But on the morning of the 19th he came up 
with a body of cavalry who seemed disposed to stand and make a 
stout resistance. General Slocum, who commanded the portion of 
the army thus attacked, thought he was only to have a slight skir- 
mish. About noon a deserter from the rebels was brought to 
the general's tent, who told him that all Johnston's army was be- 
hind this front of cavalry, and that Johnston had assured his soldiers 
that morning that they could " cut Shernlan to pieces." 

At once word was sent back to hurry up the Union troops who 
were lagging behind. The fight, which had begun at Bentonsville, 
only a few miles west of Goldsboro', grew hotter and hotter. The 
Union general waited anxiously for his expected troops, and the 
afternoon was one of intense expectancy. General Jefferson C. 
Davis — a national officer who redeemed the misfortune of bearing 
the same name as the traitor in Richmond, by deeds of great brav- 
ery — was this day more tha,n ever a hero. Our troops made a 
splendid stand, and held the field against all Johnston's terrible 
attacks. When darkness came they bad not budged from the spot 
where the battle began. During the night, several fresh divisions 
came up and joined the advance, making our line too strong to be 
broken. There was skirmishing all the next day, but on the night 
of March 20th Johnston fled, leaving the track to Goldsboro' clear. 
He had heard that Schofield and Terry had come up with their 
divisions, and saw that further resistance to the junction of the three 
armies was vain. By the night of the 23d the tents of the united 
columns whitened all the fields abont Goldsboro', and Sherman was 
on his way to City Point, Virginia, to visit Grant. There must 
have been a very happy meeting between the two generals. 



576 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER LIX. 

LAST FLASHES OF WAR. 

Mobile taken. — "Remember Fort Pillow." — The Last Stand at Selma. — The Post before 
Petersburg. — Lee's last Attempt. — Five Forks. — Confusion in Richmond. — Lee's Surren- 
der to Grant. — The last Parade. — The Cruel War is over. 

'Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas placed 
every rebellious State in the hands of the government except Ala- 
bama. The fall of Charleston restored to the nation every seaport 
on the ocean and gulf coast, except Mobile. And for weeks Farra- 
gut's fleet had lain in Mobile Bay ready at any time to take the city. 
When Sherman's success was assured two Union armies were ordered 
to advance at once ; one from the north upon Alabama ; the other 
along the Gulf upon Mobile. General Canby, who had sent a part 
of his army to Nashville to aid Thomas, was now awaiting its return 
that he might finish the work begun by the capture of Mobile Bay ; 
take the city, and clear the Gulf of traitors. There were two forts 
on the eastern side of the bay, very near the city. These were, 
Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley. Canby's men were taken in trans- 
ports to Fort Gaines, one of the forts conquered when Mobile Bay 
was taken. From Fort Gaijies he moved them up a small river, from 




Redoubt and Ditch at Mobile. 

whence they marched overland to Spanish Fort, till within a few 
miles of its walls. On the 28th of March the fort was inclosed by 
our batteries, joined by the gun-boats which had come up the river 
to aid in the siege. For twelve days a circular fire from boats and 
batteries poured into the fort. On the 8th of April an assault was 
made upon the works, which carried all the outer line of the rebels, 



LAST FLASHES OF WAR. 577 

and made longer possession of the fort impossible on their part. At 
two in the morning of the 9th our troops entered it. Only six hun- 
dred men remained in the garris':^n. The rest had escaped in the 
night. It was Sunday when the troops, tired with the long siege^ 
took possession ; but there was not yet time for rest. They were 
ordered at once to attack Fort Blakeley, the only remaining point 
between Mobile and our army. The leadership in the assault was 
given to a division of negro soldiers, in whose memory the massacre 
of their race at Fort Pillow was still fresh. These troops rushed 
upon the defenses at Blakeley with terrible fury, shouting the battle- 
cry, " Remember Fort Pillow." Sunday evening the red-stained 
battlements of Fort Blakeley were carried. Mobile was ours. The 
rebels began to flee from the city early Monday morning, and on 
Tuesday the flag of the Union waved over it. The coast of thS 
Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico were redeemed. 

Meanwhile affairs were progressing in Alabama. Thomas had 
given a force of cavalry to General James Wilson, and ordered him 
to clear the State of treason. General Dick Taylor, who had fought 
Canby in Texas, and Banks in Louisiana, commanded the rebels in 
Alabama, as well as in Mobile. His most efficient aid in the former 
State was General Forrest. But Forrest's cavalry had been reduced 
to a bare remnant of its old numbers. As soon as Wilson crossed 
the Tennessee River into Alabama, he marched straiglit toward 
the town of Selma, where the rebels still kept a number of manufac- 
tories at work furnishing guns and ammunition. Forrest saw that 
Wilson was on the way to destroy these valuable works, and hurried 
to intercept him. Throwing himself across the road to Selma, he 
made one attempt to prevent his advance, but finding Wilson too 
strong for him he fell back into Selma, and intrenched himself 
there. Forrest was in a sad plight. With the remains of his once 
famous cavalry and some miserable militia, principally consisting of 
old men and boys, he had not half as many men as Wilson. The 
best part of valor lay in a hasty retreat.. But General Dick Taylor, 
his superior officer, was in the town, and ordered him to hold it at 
all risks. After giving this order Taylor took the first train of cars 
out of town and was seen there no more. Forrest, who had the 
manly virtue of courage, remained and did his best. But the town 
was soon taken with many prisoners, and its manufactories, work- 
shops, and store-houses, were burned to the ground. 

Selma was taken on the 2d of April, and from that day Wilson's 



578 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



advance was more like a triumphal march than the invasion of an 
army into the enemy's country. He met none to molest or make 
him afraid. He marched on to Montgomery and raised the Union 
flag there. Then on to Georgia, stopping occasionally to disperse 




Ruins at Selma. 



the last wandering detachments of rebel cavalry in his way, till he 
ended his journey at Macon. There news reached him that made 
farther advance unnecessary. 

We left General Grant at his post before Petersburg. After that 
bloody affair of the mine and its ill success, little more Avas done that 
winter. Butler had moved north of the James River, and taken an 
important stronghold called Fort Harrison. The rebels had once 
attempted to recapture it without success, and when the new year 
opened it was one of Grant's points of attack upon Petersburg. 

The 1st of January, 1865, was the opening of a dark New Year 
to the rebels. The Southern Confederacy was at its last gasp. As 
a final resort, Lee advised that the negroes should be drafted for the 
army. Perhaps his advice might have been taken, if there had been 
muskets to arm them or even meat to feed them. But it was too 
late to consider the question of arming their slaves. The steady 
tramp ! tramp ! of Sherman's advance sounded its warning in Lee's 
ears. He knew that advance was the signal for his destruction. 

On the 25tli of March Lee ordered one last attack upon our lines. 
It was made on the extreme right of Grant's defenses, situated on 
Hall's Hill. Lee hoped here to break through Grant's lines and join 
Johnston in North Carolina. But the day, which began brightly 
for the rebels, ended in gloom. They surprised the Unionists by 



LAST FLASHES OF WAR. 



579 




Lee's Residence. 



a sudden attack, and took Fort Steadman, the principal point in 
Grant's defense. They held it only a short time, however. The 
Unionists, recovering from their 
surprise, rallied with such force 
that the rebels were driven back 
with great slaughter. For the 
last time, Lee retired behind his 
defenses at Richmond, and re- 
mained silent there. The rebel 
army was thinned by constant 
desertions. Lee could not muster 
more than 50,000, and Johnston 
was reduced to 20,000 men. 

By the last of March Grant was 
ready for action. The weather 
was growing warm, and the roads firm and dry. Muddy roads 
had been one of the powerful aids of the rebel armies in the South, 
and the drying up of the mud was hailed with delight by our troops. 
About the 1st of April Sheridan with his fresh troops from West 
Virginia joined Grant, and received a warm welcome. Grant told 
him that " he had now made up his mind to end this matter," and 
Sheridan, always ready for warm work in the field, assented with 
alacrity to Grant's plans. 

Lee's defenses now stretched for forty miles in a circuit aboujb 
Richmond, but were thin in comparison to their length. To find his 
weakest point, and break through it, was Grant's purpose. Four 
miles west of the end of Lee's lines, a cluster of roads, branching in 
five different directions, was known as Five Forks. Here Grant 
believed he had found the vulnerable point at which he might turn 
Lee's flank, and, getting behind him, enter Richmond. On the 
last day of March he sent Sheridan towards this place to see what 
could be done there. 

Wary as the fox, who grows more cunning as the dog gains upon 
him, Lee saw this manoeuvre as soon as Sheridan moved. He de- 
tached every man that could be spared from the Petersburg defenses, 
and sent them at once to oppose Sheridan. That intrepid hero came 
near being defeated at Dinwiddle Court House, where the rebels 
overtook him on his way to Five Forks. But he held them back, 
like the brave fellow he was, till reinforcements could be sent to 
him, and next morning was at Five Forks with a strong and well 



580 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

conditioned army. He had driven the rebels before him from Din- 
widdie Court House, and they were hemmed inside their defenses at 
Five Forks, awaiting his charge. 

It was the morning of April 1st, known in the calendar as " All 
Fool's Day." There was some delay in making the charge, a delay 
at which Sheridan chafed liked a caged lion. At length, at nearly 
four in the afternoon, a charge was ordered. The rebels met it 
manfully ; they must have felt that their resistance was a forlorn 
hope, yet they fought well. Nothing could avail them. The battle 
at Dinwiddle had nearly decided that of this day. In a short 
time the rebels were in full flight, with Sheridan's cavalry spurring 
after them. All broken and disordered they ran hither and thither, 
falling an easy victory to their pursuers. Sheridan captured this 
day more than 5,000 prisoners. All the while, at Petersburg, Grant 
was hammering away on the defenses there, now almost drained 
of men. 

Lee was a man hard to beat, but he knew when he was beaten. 
When the scattering fugitives came flying to Petersburg with the 
bad news of their defeat, he telegraphed back to Jefferson Davis, 
" Richmond must be evacuated this evening." It was then Sun- 
day morning, and the messenger was obliged to follow Mr. Davis 
to church with this very unwelcome message. The people of Rich- 
mond fully believed that Lee was invincible, and Richmond could 
not be taken. Therefore, when the gentleman from Mississippi, 
who had been playing the part of " President of the Southern 
Confederacy," read Lee's message in the corner of his pew, he was 
plainly put out of countenance. The news fell on all in Richmond, 
says one of their historians, " like a thunder-clap from clear skies, 
and smote the ear of the community like the knell of death." 

Then a scene of confusion ensued, such as one sees when a fire is 
spreading in a large city. Wagons, hastily loaded, were hurrying 
to the railway station, by which they hoped to escape. Women, 
children, and old men, hastened to leave the town before the en- 
trance of the army. All night the crowd surged in the streets. 
The liquor stores were broken, open, and thousands helped them- 
selves freely to their contents. The sidewalks near these places 
were strewn with broken bottles, and the shouts of the maddened 
drunkards at their orgies filled the night. Toward morning the 
shipping at the wharves was blown up ; tobacco warehouses and 
flour stores were set on fire. The flames spread rapidly, till Rich- 



LAST FLASHES OF WAR. 581 

mond was wrapped in fire and smoke. Its roar blended witli the 
clamor in the streets, and amid terror, destruction, robbery, fire, and 
drunkenness, the night ended. A fearful night, fit for the fall of the 
blood-red meteor of secession. 

Lee left Petersburg the night of April 2d, following the line of 
the Appomattox River to the west. Grant began a pursuit next 
morning. But there was hardly need of pursuit. The rebel sol- 
diers, by thousands, threw down their guns. Starvation stared 
them in the face. There was small hope left in the breast of those 
most enthusiastic for the cause of secession. 

■ On the 6th of April Sheridan's cavalry pressed so close upon 
them, that a part of the fugitives faced about and made a desper- 
ate resistance. Weak from hunger and worn with hard marches, this 
forlorn hope fought bravely, but were finally captured with nearly 
all their officers. The next day, Lee, with about 8,000 men, all 
that was left of his grand army, was across the river near Appo- 
mattox Court House. Jefferson Davis, and the officers of the rebel 
government, had fled to Danville, and were resolving that " the 
Confederacy would fight to the last man." At this crisis a flag 
of truce came from Grant, with a note demanding Lee's surrender. 
Lee answered, asking what terms would be granted him. Then 
followed an exchange of letters lasting till the 9th, when the two 
generals agreed to meet and talk the matter over. They met in a 
quiet dwelling in the little cluster of houses about Appomattox Court 
House. Tln-ough the garden, blossoming fresh with spring flowers,, 
the two generals walked to their important interview. They were 
both quiet and reserved men, indulging in no unnecessary talk. 
Grant said afterwards, " I was covered with dust and mud ; I had 
no sword ; I was not even well mounted. I found General Lee in 
a fresh suit of Confederate gray, with all the insignia of his rank, 
and by his side the splendid dress sword given him by the State of 
Virginia." 

Their talk was soon ended. The " Armj^ of Virginia " was to 
disband and go home, every man pledging himself to fight no more 
against the flag of the Union. After the settlement, Lee rode 
silently back to his camp. The news had preceded him. Great 
cheers rose from the ranks as he rode through. There were proba- 
bly few men among them who were not heartily glad the end had 
come. Lee looked at them with a pale, sad face. " Men," he said, 
" we have fought the war together, and I have done the best I could 



582 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

for you." It was true. The war had brought forward no greater 
military leader, no man who might better have served the country 
which he had chosen to desert. 

On the 12th of April, the anniversary of the attack on Sumter, the 
rebel army had its last parade. Grant generously withdrew his 
troops from sight while the last of the conquered men fixed bayonets, 
stacked their guns, flung down their cartridge boxes, and laid over 
all the tattered flags they had carried. There were tears in some 
eyes, and some bent to kiss the ragged colors under which they had 
fought. 

Into every dwelHng, North and South, came the conviction that 
at last " the cruel war was over." Sherman was marching toward 
Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 13tli of April, when the news 
reached him. He was then moving towards Johnston. On the 15th 
he received a note from Johnston asking that any further shedding 
of blood might be stopped. Sherman at once hastened to meet him, 
and received his surrender. Close upon this followed Taylor's sur- 
render to Canby in the Louisiana department, and the laying down 
of the arms of all the rebels across the Mississippi. By the end of 
May there was not one armed soldier to resist the authority of the 
nation. The two armies had melted like snow under the spring sun, 
and the dreadful sounds of war were hushed. 



CHAPTER LX. 

THE ASSASSINATION. 



The Joy of the Nation. — Last Speech of Lincoln. — In the Theatre. — The Murder. — Sew- 
ard's attempted Assassination. — The Last Martyrs to Rebellion. — The Murderer at Ba}'. 
— His Death. — Fate of the Conspirators. — The End. 

You must picture to yourself the great joy of the loyal people 
when the news of Lee's surrender spread over the land. How the 
telegraph flashed it over the wires from city to town, from town to 
village, till at last it reached the lonely homes on the prairies, or 
among the mountains, where only the slow stage-coach carried the 
news. How it was heard by distant companies of soldiers guarding 
posts in the heart of the enemy's country, or busy in tearing up rail- 
roads, cutting telegraph wires, or any of the other acts of destructive 
warfare. The happy boys in blue, to whom came the joyful tidings, 
tossed up their caps for joy. Faces shone with thankfulness even in 



THE ASSASSINATION. 



583 



homes that would from thenceforth be forever dark, because of the 
dreadful havoc war had made in the home circle. Everywhere there 
was gladness that the struggle which had almost torn the nation in 
twain, was at last over. 

Nobody was happier than Abraham Lincoln. All these four 
years the lines in his face had 
grown deeper from the heavy 
cares his office had lain upon him. 
The nation had re-elected him in 
the fall of 1864, with Andrew 
Johnson as vice-president,' and 
on the 4tli of March he had a 
second time taken on him the 
heavy duties of his office. The 
glad news of Lee's surrender 
came to fill him with new life 
and vigor. Amid the shouts, 
bonfires, and illuminations that 
showed the joy in the capital, 
President Lincoln came out on the balcony of the White House 




Andrew Johnson. 




j'liVVrili' ■ .'..'.■" i'V ,, ■.^.'^"r. ,. . '' '' ' " III|1|,M||IIM 

l7llM,t.4,ifi;(;n:iii|.|in:ii . : 1 M IM linillhj liijliil hL[[H^L>''^ y< <-■; ■ . ilillMllllllllllll 







The National Capitol. 



and asked one of the bands to play the tune of " Dixie." This air 
had been the favorite battle-music of the rebels. They marched to 



684 



STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 



it as our armies marched to " John Brown." Said President Lincoln, 
" I have alwaj^s thought ' Dixie ' one of the best songs I ever heard. 
Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it. But I 
insist that yesterday we fairly captured it. I referred the question 
to the attorney-general, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it 
was now our property. I now ask the band to give us a good turn 
upon it." 

This was Abraham Lincoln's last public speech. At that very 
moment the pistol of the assassin was loaded for him. 

Next evening, the 14th of April, the president went to the the- 
atre to see a popular English play, called " Our American Cousin." 
For four years the heavy duties of his great office, the sorrow which 
he had felt at the horrors of the war, had made recreation almost 
impossible. Bat the war was over ; he could lay off some of his 
cares. There was now to be a little time for laughter and enjoy- 
ment ; a holiday for the nation and its president. So Mr. Lincoln 
went to the theatre, sitting in full sight of audience and actors, in a 
box just above the stage. About half-past ten o'clock in the 
evening, as the play drew near its close, a man named John 
Wilkes Booth, wrapped closely in a cloak, entered the box. He 
came up behind the president and shot him in the back of the head. 
The ball entered the brain, Lincoln's head drooped forward, his eyes 
closed, and he never spoke afterwards. It is hoped that he felt no 

more pain, though he lingered until 
next morning, and then quietly passed 
away. 

After the shot, the murderer, with 
the cry, " Sic semper tyrannis ! " 
(" Thus may it be always with ty- 
rants"), leaped over the box-railing 
down upon the stage. Rushing has- 
tily through the frightened actors, 
hardly conscious what had been done, 
he escaped through a back entrance, 
mounted a horse made ready for him 
at the theatre door, and rode rapidly 
away. 

The same evening, William H. Seward, who had been secretary of 
state all through Lincoln's administration, was lying at home ill in 
his bed, from a recent fall from a carriage. As he lay thus help- 




William H. Seward. 



THE ASSASSINATION. 585 

less, another assassin, named " Payne," entered his room, fell upon 
him with a knife, and stabbed him three times in face and neck. 
His son, who was in the room, and tried to defend his father, was 
also wounded. As the alarm arose, and the household was aroused, 
the assassin made his escape, stabbing to right and left all who en- 
deavored to hold him back. 

This news of horror so quickly following that of joy, spread over 
the country, filling it with gloom. This unostentatious man, Abra- 
ham Lincoln, — this gentleman of the people, — had won to him- 
self all loyal hearts. His face, so full of pathos, winning in spite 
of its rugged plainness, his manly, truthful nature, his noble human- 
ity, had gained him the regard even of those who at first sneered at 
the " vulgar rail-spUtter." Across the ocean in England, where he 
had been held up to ridicule, his name was now mentioned with 
reverence^ From the hour when that pistol shot made him a mar- 
tyr, the last of the long train of martyrs who died for the Union, 
Abraham Lincoln's name took its place beside that of George Wash- 
ington, and the memory of these two men will stand together as long 
as America is known or remembered. 

The miserable assassin, as he leaped from the box upon the stage, 
had caught his foot in the American flag, which draped the front of 
the President's box. He fell forward, and broke his leg in the fall. 
For days he fled with the hmb unset,- the bone working through the 
swollen flesh, in an agony of excitement that perhaps deadened him 
to any sense of pain. A party was at once sent in pursuit of him, 
and on the 21st of April he was found in a barn near Fredericks- 
burg. Defiant to the last, he stood at bay, like a hunted wild ani- 
mal, with loaded weapon, prepared to take the life of any one who 
attempted to take him alive. The pursuers at length fired the 
barn in which he had taken refuge. Before the flames had fairly 
spread, an army sergeant, named Boston Corbett, fired his rifle at 
him. The ball entered his neck, and he died a few hours later in 
great agony. Tlie action he committed was so wild and devoid of 
reason, that it has been charitably thought the murderer was partly 
insane. He belonged to a family of remarkable actors. His father, 
one of the most famous tragedians of his time, was a man of almost 
sentimental tenderness to men and animals. His grandfather was 
an earnest partisan of the American colonies during the war of the 
Revolution, and he kept in his drawing-room a portrait of Washing- 
ton, before which he obliged his guests to uncover their heads. By 



586 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

what strange caprice their descendant ever took upon himself the 
assassination of so just a man as Abraham Lincohi, can never be 
known. After Booth's death, Payne, the assassin of Seward, was 
taken, and with three others — one a woman — who were engaged 
in tliis conspiracy of murder, was tried and sentenced to death. 
The four were pubUcly hanged on the 7th of July, 1865. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

CLOSING EVENTS. 



Andrew Johnson succeeds Lincoln. — U. S. Grant elected President. — Jefferson Davis cap- 
tured and released. — Atlantic Telegraph laid. — Pacific Railroad built. — American In- 
ventions. — The Centennial. 

Vice-president Andrew Johnson took the presidential chair in 
the midst of tlie general gloom that spread over the land at the sad 
news of Mr. Lincoln's murder. Andrew Johnson was a man of 
limited education, but with sufficient force of character to raise him- 
self from one political office to another, till he had come to occupy a 
seat in the senate of the United States. He was a member from 
Tennessee, and his strong utterance against secession had made his 
name famous among the loyal people, and had won him their votes 
as vice-president, on Mr. Lincoln's second election. But he proved 
hardly great enough to stand the test of the position of president of 
the nation, and his course was not generally approved by those 
whose votes had placed him in power. He was accused by them of 
opposing the passing of such bills as would aid in restoring order in 
the recently rebellious part of the country, and was suspected of co- 
operating with the enemies of the country. So strong was the 
feeling against him that he was openly charged with treason in 
Congress, and was brought to trial on a charge of " high crimes and 
misdemeanors " in the administration of his high office. He was 
finally acquitted, although in the Senate thirty-five out of fifty-four 
voted that he was guilty. After his administration was over he 
retired to his home in Tennessee. He has since been re-elected to 
the senate of the United States, and will probably be heard of 
again in the nation's councils. 

His successor as president was U. S. Grant, who had proved him- 
self so good a military leader through the war, and had finally con- 
quered Lee in his last stronghold in Virginia. He has been twice 



CLOSING EVENTS. 587 

elected president, and still sits in the seat made glorious by Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. 

Would you like to hear what became of Jefferson Davis, the un- 
fortunate make-believe president of the seceding States? When 
Lee's surrender had killed the last hope of success in every rebel 
breast, Jefferson Davis, with his family and a few friends, hurried 
south to reach some port on the Gulf of Mexico, by which he might 
flee from the country. He got into the heart of Georgia, where 
General Wilson and his cavalry were still guarding the State. 
Wilson heard of Davis's whereabouts, and sent out detachments in 
different directions to watch for, and if possible capture him. One 
of these parties entered the town of Irwinsville, and approached a 
house that had been suspected. Here they met a singular-looking 
figure, tall and gaunt, oddly attired in a woman's wrapper, with a 
shawl drawn over the head, carrying a pail as if to draw water from 
a spring near by. The leader of the soldiery challenged this strange 
object, and the shawl and wrapper removed, the marked form and 
features of Jefferson Davis appeared under the flimsy disguise. He 
had almost made a successful escape, for horses and all preparations 
for flight were awaiting him at the spring in a coppice hard by. He 
was taken prisoner, and confined in some pleasant apartments in 
Fortress Monroe, where he remained until 1867, awaiting his trial 
for treason, but was permitted to give bail to appear whenever his 
trial was decided on, and thereupon released. Since that time he 
has fallen into obscurity, and will probably never be heard of in 
history again. If you have read how severely treason has been 
punished by other nations, you will realize how lenient this govern- 
ment has been to those who endeavored to destroy it. Up to the 
present no individual has been punished by any severer penalty 
than an imprisonment similar to that of Davis. 

But the Southern people have suffered tragically for the terrible 
mistake they committed in permitting themselves to be drawn into 
a rebellion against the government, by a few wrong-headed leaders. 
A sadder story will never be told than that which could be repeated 
in every city, town, and village of the seceding States. Many 
families, who before the war had lived in affluence, saw every 
luxury, and almost every comfort, carried away in the dire course 
of war. Delicate women, unused to toil, have been driven almost 
to starvation, in attempts to support themselves and their families 
by the needle or some other form of feminine labor. The war, like 



588 STOKY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

the plague that passed over Egypt, had stricken down the first-born 
in thousands of families. Husbands, fathers, sons, had perished on 
bloody battle-fields, leaving the helpless women only an inheritance 
of sorrow and poverty. Their houses are in ruins ; their plantations, 
in most cases have passed into the hands of strangers ; and their 
chattel slaves have become free men and women. The heart aches 
in contemplating the misery endured by them, and in reflecting how 
many have suffered for causes in which they had no part. 

When the States in rebellion began to be reorganized and set in 
order again, the question was submitted whether or not the freed- 
men of the South should have the right to vote ; and it was decided 
that they should enjoy the privileges common to all citizens. They 
accordingly now wield a strong political influence, and hold high 
offices, among the class who were once their owners. 

But we will turn from these events, so many of which are painful 
to rejnember, to look at a few great national causes of rejoicing. 
Even in the tumult of war, the country was not altogether forgetful 
of other interests, and of the measures which would increase her 
prosperity. Before the war began to shake the land with its thun- 
ders, a plan had been talked of for binding Europe and America 
together with a telegraphic wire, which should lie under the waters 
of the Atlantic Ocean, by means of which the two continents could 
have instant news of each other. Submarine telegraphs had been 
tried and been successful, though nowhere over so wide a space of 
waters. But an American, named Cyrus W. Field, who had ability 
to form great enterprises, energy to carry them out, and money to 
invest in them, determined that a cable should be laid from the 
Western to the Eastern hemispheres. He interested rich men in 
England and America, and they all set to work to carry out the 
project. The cable was to be laid from the Island of Newfoundland 
to the shores of Ireland, because the distance across the ocean was 
shorter at these points, and both these islands were connected with 
the main-land by other shorter marine telegraphic wires. Thus they 
began in 1857 to lay the wires from Ireland, when the cable parted, 
and the attempt was a failure. Undiscouraged, they tried again ; 
this time sending the vessel which bore the wire out to mid-ocean to 
begin there its precious deposit into the deep. Again the cable 
parted, and again the experiment was tried. This time — the third 
— it was at first successful, and a message from Queen Victoria, of 
ninety-nine words, was sent to the president of this nation. The 



CLOSING EVENTS. 589 

whole land set up a great shout of rejoicing, when in the midst of 
the celebration of the great event it was discovered that the cable 
did not work properly, and no more messages could be sent. The 
undaunted leaders of the enterprise were not yet dismayed, but kept 
on experimenting in all kinds of wires, determined that they would 
yet succeed in the teeth of failure. In 1865, when they thought 
they had now a perfect cable and a perfect set of instruments, they 
tried again ; and again the cable parted. I think even the patient 
spider would hardly have spun her web again over a chasm which 
had baffled her skill as often as the ocean had baffled these men. 
But Field and his associates could teach perseverance even to the 
spider ; and, for the fifth time, they began cautiously, and with the 
civilized world waiting the result with breathless anxiety, to uncoil 
their wire into the threatening ocean. This time they were re- 
warded by success, and in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred 
and sixty-six the lightning crossed under the waters, and carried its 
message from the Old World to the New. Since that time there 
has been unbroken telegraphic communication between Europe and 
America. 

An accomplishment no less important to our nation was the 
building of the railroad to the Pacific coast, and thus making a link 
which brought the two great oceans of the world into close com- 
panionship. This had long been talked about, and Congress had 
sent officers to explore the country west of the Mississippi River, 
across the continent to California, and find the best place to build a 
road thither. California, now a large and prosperous State, lent her 
energy to the achievement, and year after year the work was urged 
onward, until in 1869 two engines, one coming from California over 
the mountain range of the Sierra Nevada, and the other crossing the 
great plains of the Northwest and cutting through the spurs of the 
Rocky Mountains, steamed slowly together till they touched each 
other front to front, and the engineers from the West and East 
shook hands in congratulation across the narrow line of separation. 
The last rail in the great work was laid, and the dream of Colum- 
bus, and all the great sailors of his day, of a short, route to the 
Indies, was here realized. From Europe to America in nine days, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in seven • more, and across 
the Pacific to the Isle of Cipangu and the rich coasts of Cathay in 
twenty more, — the wildest dreams of the fifteenth century could 
hardly have, pictured a shorter journey to the East. 



590 STORY OF OUR COUNTRY. 

And not alone in telegraphs which spread their fine network all 
over the land, nor in railroads which cut the States and Territories 
right and left like the lines in a spider's web, has the nation shown 
its progress and enterprise. The invention of the cunning Yankee 
has become a by-word. There are his sewing-machines, one of 
which could do the work of a dozen nimble-fingered seamstresses. 
There are his agricultural machines for reaping, mowing, and sow- 
ing, and all sorts of out-door labor, which do the work of an army 
of laborers. His improvements in manufactures, in science, it would 
take another volume to tell all about them. It is in such works as 
these that the chief glory and highest prosperity of our nation lies. 

Our country is now almost one hundred years old. As I write 
these lines the day of the anniversary of the battle of Lexington is 
near at hand, — the day on which the first blood was shed in the 
struggle for our National Independence, and in our struggle with 
the Rebellion which attacked our nation's life. We have passed 
through two bloody conflicts ere the United States could assert her 
right to call herself a great nation, ranking among the most pow- 
erful on the globe. Let us never forget what a price she has paid 
for her greatness, and let us aid to make this such a nation that 
every one of us may be proud to say, I AM A Citizen of the 
American Republic. 



INDEX 



A. 



Abercrombie commands British army, 168. 

Abolitionists, measures of, 414; arguments, 
41G. 

Acadie granted to England, 149; burning of, 
163. 

Adams, John, graduates at Harvard, 175; 
made foreign minister, 276; elected presi- 
dent, 294; death, 348. 

Adams, Samuel, patriotism of, 208. 

Alabama secedes, 434. 

Alabama, sunk by the Kearsarr/e, 561. 

Albany built, 113; growth of, 181. 

Algerine pirates, trouble with, 301. 

Algiers attempts to levy on United States, 
302; war with, 305, 344. 

Allen, Ethan, takes Ticonderoga, 207; taken 
prisoner, 216. 

Alphonso, King of Portugal, 29. 

American flag first designed, 219. 

Ampudia, General, Mexican officer, 378. 

Anderson, Major E., defends J'ort Sumter, 
437 ; in Kentucky, 467. 

Andre, Major John, correspondence with Ar- 
nold, 254 ; capture of, 255 ; letter to Wash- 
ington, 257; execution, 259. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor of Massachu- 
setts Colony, 138; rebellion against him, 
140. 

Antietam, battle of, 506. 

Archdale, John, Governor of Carolinas, 121. 

Arkansas leaves the Union, 449 ; entered by 
troops, 524. 

Army of the Cumberland, The, 511. 

Arnold, Benedict, enlists in revolutionary 
army, 206 ; burns his ships on Lake Cham- 
plain, 225; expedition to Fort Stanwix, 
236; marries Tory wife, 241; at West 
Point, 254; his treason, 254; escape, 256; 
burns Richmond, 269. 

Atlanta, Sherman moves toward, 565; taking 
of, 567. 

Austin, Stephen, colonist in Texas, 373. 

Aztecs, 66. 

♦ 38 



B. 



Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion in Virginia, 135; 
death, 1.36. 

Bahama Isles, 38. 

Baker, Colonel, killed at Ball's Bluff, 468. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, discovers Pacilic 
Ocean, 40. 

Ball, Washington's inauguration, 287. 

Baltimore, Lord, settles Maryland, 119. 

Baltimore attacked by British, 337 ; riot in, 444. 

Banks, General N. P., supersedes Butler at 
New Orleans, 494; besieges Port Hudson, 
523. 

Barre, Colonel, speech in Parliament, 191. 

Beauregard, General, commands in South 
Carolina, 439; at Manassas, 458; at Pitts- 
burg Landing, 484; removal of, 488. 

Bee, General, at Bull Run, 460. 

Behaim, Martin, globe of 1492, 29. 

Bell, John, nominated for president, 432. 

Bennington, battle of, 237. 

Bentonsville, battle at, 575. 

Berkeley, Sir William, Governor of Virginia, 
134; hangs insurgents, 137. 

Bimini, Island of, discovered, 38. 

Blagdensburg, repulse of Americans, 334. 

Bloody Brook, battle of, 131. 

Bobadilla, Francis, arrests Columbus, 34. 

Bon nomine Richard fights Serapis, 249. 

Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 289. 

Booth, John Wilkes, murders Lincoln, 584 ; 
capture and death, 585. 

Boston, settled, 102; description in 1760, 174; 
massacre, 192; Port Bill, 194; evacuated 
by the British, 219. 

Braddock, General, commands British in Vir- 
ginia, 161. 

Bradford, William, second Governor of Plym- 
outh Colony, 99. 

Bragg, General, at Buena Vista, 388; re- 
treat through Tennessee, 540 ; proclamation, 
509. 

Brandywine, battle of, 230. 

Brant, John, Indian ally of British, 234. 



692 



INDEX. 



Breckenridge, John, nominated for president, 
431. 

Broadway, aspect in eighteenth century, 179. 

Broolts, Preston, beats Charles Sumner, 420. 

Brown, John, emigrates to Kansas, 422; 
leads slaves to Canada, 426; Harper's 
Ferry raid, 427 ; execution, 430 ; song, 570. 

Buchanan, James, elected president, 426. 

Buckner, General, attempts capture of Louis- 
ville, 467. 

Buena Vista, battle of, 387. 

Bull Run, defeat at, 461; second battle of, 
500. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 209 ; monument, 211. 

Burgoyne, General John, sent to America, 

• 232 ; surrender of, 238. 

Burns, Anthony, fugitive slave, 418. 

Burnside, General Ambrose, takes Newbern, 
479 ; supersedes McClellan, 506. 

Burr, Aaron, march to Quebec, 216 ; duel with 
Hamilton, 307; arrest for treason, 308. 

Burroughs, Rev. George, hanged for witch- 
craft, 144. 

Butler, General B. F., opposes secession, 
446; commands at Fortress Monroe, 451; 
at Hatteras Inlet, 469 ; expedition to New 
Orleans, 489; his administration in New 
Orleans, 494. 

Butler, John, leader at Wyoming massacre, 
242. 

Butler, Zebulon, bravery at Wyoming, 242. 



Cabot, John, sails for North America, 50. 
Cabot, Sebastian, discovers Labrador, 50. 
Calhoun, John C, leader of "Nullifiers," 

360. 
California, Drake lands there, 62; conquest 

of, 386 ; gold discovered, 398; admitted to 

the Union, 401. 
Calvert, Cecil, Lord Baltimore, sends colony 

to Maryland, 119 ; liberality of his laws, 120. 
Calvert, Leonard, leads colon}- to Maryland, 

119. 
Camden, battle of, 265. 
Canada, refuses to join the thirteen colonies, 

217. 
Canby, General, commands at Mobile, 576. 
Cano, Sebastian del, 42. 
Canoes, Indian, 68. 
Cape Verde Islands, 33. 
Carolinas, settlement of by Ribault, 54; grant 

of, by Charles II., 121." 
Carolina, North, settled at Albemarle, 121. 
Carolina, South, settled at Charleston, 121. 
Carteret, Sir George, gets grants of New 

Jersey, 118. 
Cartier, Jacques, discovery of Canada, 51; 

other voj'ages, 52. 



Carver, John, first Governor of Plymouth 
Colony, 99. 

Cavaliers, description of, 93. 

Cedar Mountain, battle of, 500. 

Cerro Gordo, assault, 391. 

Champe, John, pretended deserter, 258. 

Champlain, Samuel, tight on Lake Cham- 
plain, 151. 

Champlain, Lake, battle of, 339. 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 525. 

Chapultepec, storming of, 395. 

Charles I. of England, gives charter to 
Roger Williams, 105 ; beheaded, 108. 

Charles II., made King of England, 117 ; 
grants lands to Penn, 122. 

Charles V. of Germany, 41. 

Charleston, South Carolina, settled, 121 ; 
taken bj' British, 251 ; celebration in, 274 ; 
bombardment of, 534. 

Charlestown, Massachusetts, settled, 102. 

Charter Oak, story of, 140. 

Chattanooga Valley, Bragg at, 541. 

Chicago, slaughter at, 319. 

Chickamauga Valley, retreat at, 543. 

Chippewa, battle of, 332. 

Christina, Queen of Sweden, 115. 

Churubusco, fight at, .393. 

Clarke, George Rogers, takes Vincennes, 245. 

Clay, Henry, in Congress, 361. 

Claybnurne, William, incites insurrection in 
Maryland, 120. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, leads his fleet to South 
Carolina, 220; takes Charleston, 251. 

Cockburn, Admiral, in Virginia waters, 333. 

Cold Harbor, battle of, 553. 

Coligny, Admiral, sends colony to Florida, 
53; death, 58. 

Collins, Captain, commander of the Wachu- 
sett, 562. 

Columbus, Bartholomew, made Governor of 
New Spain, 33 ; goes to England, 49. 

Columbus, Christopher, birth, 26 ; career as 
sailor, 27; goes to Spain, 30; sets sail from 
Palos 31; discovers land, 32; story of the 
egg, 34; disgrace, 34; death, 35. 

Columbus, Diego, 30. 

Columbus, Ferdinand, 35. 

Congress, seat of, 296. 

Connecticut, settled, 106 ; preserves her char- 
ter, 139. 

Constitution, adoption of new, 285. 

Constitution, sailing of the, 320. 

Continent, first journej' across, 298. 

Continental Congress, assembled, 194; mem- 
bers, 195; resolutions, 196; second meet- 
ing, 204; Declaration of Independence pre- 
sented and passed, 221; vacates Philadel- 
phia, 230. 

Continental money, worthlessness of, 243. 



INDEX. 



593 



Contreras, attack on, 393. 

Convention for drafting the Constitution, 

284. 
Corinth, gathering of rebel armies, 482; 

rebels decamping from, 488; battle of, 511. 
Cornwallis, Lord, sends troops to attack 

Washington, 227; fortifies Yorktown, 271 ; 

campaign in South Carolina, 2G0; surren- 
der of, 273. 
Cortereal, Caspar, discovers St. Lawrence 

River, 30. 
Cortez, Hernandez, conquest of Mexico, 43, 

65; in ^Mexico, 371. 
Cotton plant introduced into South Carolina, 

185. 
Cowpens, battle of, 263. 
Cromwell, Oiivev, becomes Lord Protector of 

England, 108. 
Crown Point, captured by Ethan Allen, 200. 
Cumherlnnd, sinking of, 480. 
Curtis, General, marches on General Price, 

477. 

D. 

Da Gama, Vasco, 33. 

Dahlgren, Admiral, renews bombardment of 

Charleston, 534. . 
Dahlgren, Colonel, defeat and death, 546. 
Dale, Sir Thomas, Governor of Virginia, 83. 
Dallas, Alexander, plans a new government 

bank, 357. . 
Dare, Ellinor, .mother of first white child, 64. 
Dare, Virginia, first child born in Virginia, 

64. 
Darien, Isthmus of, 35. 
Darrah, Lydia, patriotic conduct, 231. 
Daughters of Liberty, 191. 
Davis, Jefferson, President of Southern Con- 
federacy, 434; capture of, 587. 
Deane, Silas^ commissioner to France, 240. 
'Decatur, Captain, captures British frigate, 

322 ; sent to Algiers, 345. 
De la Ware, comes to Virginia, 83. 
Delaware, becomes a separate colonj', 125. 
Delaware Bay, settlement on, 115. 
Delaware River, Washington crosses, 226. 
D'Estaing, Count, joins American cause, 241. 
De Soto, see Soto. 
De Vaca, Cabeija, crosses the continent, 44; 

meets De Soto, 45. 
Donelson, Fort, capture of, 476. 
Doniphan, march of, 389. 
Dorchester Heights fortified bv Washington, 

218. ' . 

Dorchester. Massachusetts, settled, 102. 
Dorsetshire, emigration from, 106. 
Douglas, Stephen, Kansas Nebraska Bill, 

419. 
Draft, conditions of the, 530. 
38 



Drake, Francis, Sir, attacks the Spaniards, 
59; succors Raleigh's colony, 62. 

Dumont, Colonel, attacks Philippi, 454. 

Dupont, Admiral, commands expedition to 
Sea Islands, 470; at Morris Island, 534. 

Dustin, Hannah, prisoner among Indians, 147. 

Dyer, Mary, hanging of, 123. 



Early, General, advances toward Washington, 
554. 

Edward VI. of England, 91. 

Eliot, John, Apostle of the Indians, 102. 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 59; Virginia 
named in her honor, 02 ; succeeds Edward, 
92. 

Ellsworth, Col. Ephraim E., death, 451. 

Emancipation Proclamation, 516. 

Endicott, John, settles in Salem, 101. 

England claims North America, 50 ; at war 
with Holland, 138; war with France, 
(1689), 146; forced to obtain peace, 274; 
outrages on American sailors, 314; second 
war with United States, 316. 

Erie, battle of Lake, 329. 

Evans, General, at Bull Run, 460. 

Evans, Oliver, his road engine, 355. 

Everett, Edward, nominated for vice-presi- 
dent, 432. 



Fair Oaks, battle of, 498. 

Faneuil, Peter, builder of Faneuil Hall, 175. 

Faneuil Hall, cradle of libert\', 192. 

Farragut, arrival of, at Ship Island, 490; 
in Mobile Bay, 563. 

Fashions and changes in clothes, 287. 

Federal Union formed, 204. 

Federalists and their leader, 315. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 31; his neglect of 
Columbus, 35. 

Ferguson, Colonel, bravado of, 261. 

Field, Cyrus W., originates Atlantic tele- 
graphic, 588. 

Fillmore, IMillard, becomes president, 402. 

First bloodshed in Revolution, 203. 

Fitch, John, attempts at steamboat naviga- 
tion, 309. 

Florida, steamship, captured, 562. 

Florida, discovered, 38; explored by Narvaez, 
44; explored b}' De Soto, 45; Ribault's 
colony, 54; St. Augustine built, 55; Spain 
relinquishes possession, 347 ; secession, 
434. 

Floyd, John B., at Carnifax Ferry, 456; in 
command at Fort Donelson, 475. 

Foote, Commodore, sent to Tennessee, 473; 
arrival at Island No. 10, 486; sails to Mem- 
phis, 488; death of, 534. 



694 



INDEX. 



Forrest, General, makes stand in Selma, 
577; attack on Fort Pillow, 559; raid 
through Tennessee, 558; retreat from Fort 
Anderson, 558 

Fort Blakelej', taking of, 577. 

Fort Brown, built on Rio Grande, 376. 

Fort Crown Point, situation of, 167. 

Fort Duquesne, site of Pittsburg, 160; at- 
tacked b}' Braddock, 161. 

Fort Forty, in Wyoming massacre, 243. 

Fort Frontenac, built by La Salle, 167. 

Fort Gaines, surrender of, 564. 

Fort Griswold, slaughter at, 269. 

Fort Henry, attack on, 473; surrender of, 474. 

Fort Jackson, bombardment of, 491. 

Fort Leavenworth, situation of, 380. 

Fort McAllister taken, 572. 

Fort Morgan, surrender of, 564. 

Fort Moultrie besieged by rebels, 438. 

Fort Pillow, Foote takes it, 488; butchery at, 
559. 

Fort Powell blown up, 564. 

Fort Saunders, assault on, 543. 

Fort St. Philip, surrender of, 493. 

Fort Stanwix, attack on, 235. 

Fort Sullivan, attack by Sir II. Clinton, 220. 

Fort Sumter fired upon, 438. 

Fort Ticonderoga, situation of, 167. 

Fort Vincenitfes captured by Americans, 245. 

Fort William Henry built, 168. 

Fortress Monroe, Butler takes command, 451. 

France, possessions in America, 158; loses 
her lands in North America, 173; effect 
of French Revolution on America, 293; a 
threatened war with, 295. 

Franklin, Benjamin, account of early life, 
182: made postmaster of colonies, 206; 
commissioner in France, 240; at the court 
of France, 275 ; his three articles of peace, 
278; opposes slavery, 406. 

Frazer, burial of, 238. 

Fredericksburg, attack on, 507. 

Free trade, clamor for by the South, 359. 

Fremont, John C, explores Rocky Mauntains, 
385; conquest of California, 386; nominated 
for president, 426; in command in Missouri, 
465 ; deposed, 465. 

Frenchtown, slaughter at. 323. 

Frietchie, Barbara, her patriotism, 501. 

Fugitive Slave Law, 418. 

Fulton, Robert, experiments in steamboat- 
ing, 309. 

G. 

Gage, Governor, of Massachusetts, 193; sends 
troops to Concord, 198; issues proclamation, 
207. 

Gansevoort, Colonel, defends Fort Stanwix, 
234. 



Garner, Margaret, story of, 419. 

Garnett, General, death of, 455. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, mobbed in Boston, 
414. 

Gates, General Horatio, aids in organizing 
army, 212; victory over Burgoyne, 238; 
sent to oppose Cornwallis, 260. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, shipwreck, 82; comes to 
Virginia, 83. 

Genoa, birthplace of Columbus. 29. 

George IL, King of England, 126 ; death, 185. 

George IH., accession to throne, 185. 

Georgia, settled, 126; secession of, 434. 

Germantown, battle of, 230. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 527; horrors of battle- 
field, 528; consecration of national ceme- 
tery, 529. 

Gibson, Fort, taking of, 521. 

Gilbert, Humphrey, gets patent for discovery, 
59; reaches Newfoundland, 60; ship- 
wreck, 61. 

Glass-making in Virginia, 86. 

Goffe, William, regicide, 132. 

Gorges, Fernando, gets land grants in Maine 
and New Hampshire, 107; sends colonies 
to Maine, 108. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, goes to Virginia, 75; 
member of first council, 76. 

Gourgues, Dominic de, revenges his country- 
men, 57. 

Government, forming a new, 283. 

Grant, General, occupies Paducah, 466 ; plan 
of attack in Kentucky, 473 ; loses supplies 
at Holly Springs, 519; at Chattanooga, 
542 ; made lieutenant-general of the Union 
armies, 548; plan against Lee's army, 549; 
his measures against Lee, 552; before Rich- 
mond, 579 ; receives Lee's surrender, 581 ; 
elected president, 586. 

Greeley, Horace, New York riotj 532. 

Green Mountain Boys, 206. 

Greene, General, campaign in South Carolina, 
261. 

Grenville, Richard, goes with Raleigh's col- 
ony, 62. 

Guerrillas, their warfare in Missouri, 478. 

Guevriere, capture of, 321. 

Guilford Court House, South Carolina, de- 
feat at, 265. 

Gulf of Mexico, 39. 

Gulf of St. Lawrence discovered, 37. 



H. 

Hale, Nathan, fate of, 256. 

Hamilton, A., secretary of treasury, 287; duel 

with Burr, 307. 
Hampton Roads, arrival of one hundred ships, 

479. 



INDEX. 



595 



Hancock, John, graduated at Harvard, 175; 
president Massachusetts Assembly, 208. 

Harper's Ferry, description of, 427; sur- 
render, 505; recapture, 506. 

Harrison, William H., elected president, 368; 
death of, 369 ; pursuit of Proctor and Te- 
cumseh, 331. 

Hartford, fiag-ship of Farragut, 563. 

Harvard College founded, 175. 

Hayti discovered, 32. 

Hazen, General, attacks Fort McAllister, 
572. 

Hendrick, King, death of, 165.. 

Hennepin, Louis, explores to Falls of St. An- 
thony, 157. 

Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, 119. 

Henry VII. of England, 30; Bartholomew 
Columbus applies to him, 49; sends Cabot 
to North America, 50. 

Henry VIII. of England, 91. 

Henry, Prince, of Portugal, 28. 

Henry, Patrick, orator of Virginia, 185; 
speech for freedom, 189. 

Herkimer, General, brave death, 235. 

Hessians, capture of, 226. 

Hispaniola discovered, 32; colony of, 33. 

Holland, pilgrims in, 94; description of, 109. 

Hood, General, defeated at Nashville, 568. 

Hooker, General, crosses Rappahannock, 525. 

Hopkins, Esek, commands American navy, 
246. 

Hornet, battle with Peacock, 326. 

Houston, Samuel, leader in Te.xas, 374. 

Howe, Admiral, brings fleet to New York, 
228. 

Howe, General, evacuates Boston, 219; enters 
Trenton, 225. 

Howe, Lord, killed at Ticonderoga, 170. 

Howe, Mrs., story of her captivity, 168. 

Hudson, Henrj', explores Hudson River, 
111; in Hudson Bay, 112. 

Hudson, Fort, surrender of, 523. 

Hudson River, discovered, 111. 

Huguenots in France, 53. 

Hull, Captain, naval victory, 321. 

Hull, General, surrenders Detroit, 317. 

Hunter, General, at Bull Run, 459; Folly 
Island, 534. 

Hutchinson, Anne, banishment, 103 ; massa- 
cre, 115. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, 188; house mobbed by patriots, 
189. 

I. 

Icelanders said to have discovered America, 

25. 
Independence declared, 221. 
India, 28. 



Indian corn introduced into Europe, 66. 

Indians, description of, so called by Colum- 
bus, 32; different tribes of, 65; personal 
appearance, 66; houses and dress, 67; ca- 
noes, 68; food, 69; implements, 70; dances, 
71; religion, 72. 

Indians, treaty with, 345; hostilities toward 
settlers, 290. 

Indian wars in Jackson*^ administration, 364. 

Isabella of Castile, patron of Columbus, 31; 
her death, 35. 

Island No. 10, fortifications on, 486 ; captured, 
487. 



Jackson, General Andrew, representative 
from Tennessee, 292; lights the Indians, 
346 ; elected president, 353 ; war with the 
United States Bank, 358; Nulliliers, 362. 

Jackson, George, Governor of Missouri, 462. 

Jackson, General, Thomas, at Bull Run, 460; 
takes Harper's Ferry, 505 ; death, 525. 

James I. succeeds Elizabeth, 74; persecutes 
the Puritans, 94; gives grants in America, 
107. 

James II., Duke of York, New York named 
for him, 118; made king, 138; deposed, 
139. 

Jamestown settled, 75. 

Jasper, Sergeant, brave deed of, 220; death, 
244. 

Jay, John, his services to the colonies, 277. 

Jefferson, Thomas, at William and Mary's 
College, 185; member Continental Con- 
gress, 204; Governor of Virginia, 269; po- 
litical beliefs, 286; elected president, 297; 
second term, 306; death, 348; opposition to 
slavery, 406. 

Jesuits in America, 152 ; good work of mis- 
sionaries, 153. 

Jogues, Isaac, sufferings from Indians, 152. 

John II., King of Portugal, 30. 

Johnson, Andrew, becomes president, 586. 

Johnson, Sir William, influence with Indians, 
161; description of, 104. 

Johnston, General A. S., in Kentucky, 476: 
killed at Pittsburg Landing, 485. 

Johnston, General Joseph E., at Bull Run, 
459 ; removed from command, 567 ; last ef- 
fort in South Carolina, 573. 

Joliet, Loui^, journey down Mississippi River, 
154. 

Jones, John Paul, battle with Serapis, 249. 

Jones, Captain, naval success, 322. 

K. 

Kalb, Baron de, enters American army, 229. 
Kansas, emigration to, 421; civil war, 424. 



596 



INDEX. 



Kearney, Captain Philip, in Mexico, 394. 

Kearney, General Stephen, conquest of New 
Mexico, 382. 

Kelly, General, wounded, 454. 

Kendall, George, goes to Virginia, 75; mem- 
ber of first council in Virginia, 76. 

Kenesaw Mountain, battle of, 566. 

Kentucky becomes a State, 291; neutrality of , 
467. 

Key, Francis Scott, writes " Star Spangled 
Banner," 338. 

Kieft, William, Governor of New York, 114. 

Kilpatrick, General, raid in Virginia, 544; 
in Sherman's armj-, 570. 

King George's War, 149. 

King's Mountain, battle of, 261. 

King William's War, 148. 

Kipp's Landing, 223. 

Kosciusko, Thaddeus, joins Americans, 262. 



Labrador discovered, 36. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, arrival in America, 
229; wounded at Brandywine, 230; in 
France, 292; visit to America, 347. 

La Salle, Chevalier Kobert, explores Missis- 
sippi River, 155 ; murder of, 156. 

Laudonniere, Rene de, commands Huguenot 
colony, 55. 

Laurens, Henry, his services and capture, 
276. 

Lawrence, Captain James, death of, 327. 

Lawrence, Kansas, besieged by Missourians, 
425; sack of, 539. 

Lee, Arthur, commissioner to France, 240. 

Lee, Charles, assists in organizing army, 212. 

Lee. Richard Henry, rising lawyer in Virginia, 
185. 

Lee, Major Henry, attempts to take Arnold, 
258. 

Lee, General Robert E , joins rebel cause, 
456 ; made general-in-chief , 498 ; march to 
Pennsylvania, 526 ; march to Maryland, 501. 
surrender of, 581. 

Lexington, battle of, 204. 

Lexington, Mississippi, taken by rebels, 465. 

Libby Prison, 545. 

Lincoln, General, plans siege of Savannah, 
244 ; besieged in Charleston, 251. 

Lincoln, Abraham, debates with Douglas, 
420; early life, 432; election, 434; inaug- 
ural speech, 436; emancipation proclama- 
tion, 516; last speech, 583; murder of, 584. 

Locke, John, makes laws for Carolinas, 121. 

London Company colonize Virginia, 75. 

Longfellow, H. W., ballad of "Humphrey 
Gilbert," 61; "Evangeline," 163; "Paul 
Revere's Ride," 199. 



Lookout Mountain, battle of, 543. 
Louisiana receives its name, 156; purchase 

of, 298; secession of, 434; uprising in, 

523. 
Louisville, Kentucky, guarded by Anderson, 

467. 
Lovejoy, Elijah, killing of, 414. 
Luciis, Eliza, introduces cotton, 185. 
Lundy, Benjamin, tirst abolitionist, 413. 
Lundy's Lane, battle of, 333. 
Luther, Martin, called a fanatic, 414. 
Lynn, Massachusetts, settled, 102. 
Lyons, General Nathaniel, guards St. Louis, 

463 ; killed, 464. 

M. 

Macdonough, Commodore, naval battle of, 

340. 
Madison, James, elected president, 311; at 

battle of Blagdensburg, 334. 
Magellan, voyage around the world, 41. 
Magellan, Straits of, discovered, 42. 
Magoffin, Beriah, Governor of Kentucky, 467. 
Mails, colonial, 206. 

Maine, settled, 108; purchase by Massachu- 
setts, 134. 
Manhattan Island, settled, 113; bought of 

Indians, 114. 
Marion, Francis, story of, 252. 
Marquette, James, explores Mississippi River, 

154. 
Martin, John, member of Virginia council, 

75. 
Mar}', Queen of England, 91; called " Bloody 

Mary," 92. 
Maryland, settled, 119; liberal laws, 120; 

invaded by rebels, 501. 
Mason, James, captured bj' Wilkes, 470. 
Mason, John, proprietor of New Hampshire, 

108. 
Massachusetts, settled, 96 ; suffering in King 

Philip's War, 133; buys province of Maine, 

134; abolishes slaver}-, 405, 
Massachusetts Bay Colony formed, 102. 
Massasoit makes treaty with English, 99. 
Matthew, Captain, planter in Virginia, 89. 
Mayflower sets sail, 95. 
]\IcCleIlan, General G. B., in West Virginia, 

454; made general-in-chief, 468; failures 

in peninsular campaign, 498; advance on 

Manassas, 496; at Antietam, 503; replaced 

by Burnside, 506. 
McCulloch, General Benjamin, distress in his 

army, 463 ; death, 478. 
McDowell, General, commands in Virginia, 

457. 
McHenry, Fort, bombardment of, 337. 
McPherson, General, death of, 567. 



INDEX. 



597 



Meade, General George G., commands at Get- 
tysburg, 527. 

Mercer, General Hugh, death of, 228. 

Merrimack, rebel iron-clad, 480; depreda- 
tions of, 481. 

Mexico, invaded by Cortez, 43, 371 ; history 
of, 372. 

Milien, prison pen at, 571. 

Minuit, Peter, brings Swedish colony to New 
Jersey, 115. 

Mississippi River, discovered, 47. 

Mississippi secedes, 434. 

Missouri, neutrality of, 462; Halleck com- 
mands there, 477; rebel element in, 560. 

Missouri Compromise, 408; repeal of, 419. 

Missouri River, discovery of its source, 300. 

Mob in New York, 531. 

Moffat, Captain John, his reputation, 562. 

Monitor, fights with Merrimack, 482. 

Monmouth, battle of, 240. 

Monroe, James, elected president, 345; Mon- 
roe doctrine, 348. 

Montcalm, General, besieges Fort William 
Henry, 169 ; killed at Quebec, 172. 

Monterey, siege of, 379. 

Montgomery, General, gallant death of, 217. 

Montreal discovered by Cartier, 52; taken by 
Montgomery, 216. 

Morgan, John, raid of, 537; capture, 538. 

Morris, Robert, services in Revolution, 277. 

Morristown, Washington's head -quarters, 

250. 
, Morse, Samuel F. B., invention of telegraph, 
370. 

Moultrie, Colonel, defends Charleston, 220. 

Mulligan, Colonel, holds his post at Lexing- 
ton, 4G5. 

Mumfordsville captured, 509. 

Murfreesboro', battle of, 512. 

Murray, Mrs. Robert, saves the army, 224. 

Mutiny in Kevolutionary War, 250. 



Narvaez, Pamphilo de, explores Florida, 44. 

Nashville, besieged by Hood, 568. 

Newbern, capture of, 479. 

New England named, 90. 

New France, Canada so called, 108. 

New Hampshire, settled, 108 ; a royal colony, 
134; revolutionary outbreak, 189; abol- 
ishes slavery, 405. 

New Haven Colony formed, 107. 

New Jersey, tour through, 181; militia in 
Revolution, 228. 

New Orleans, Jackson 'defends it, 342 ; battle 
of, 343; taken by Farragut and Butler, 
493. 



Newport, Christopher, member of Virginia 
council, 76. 

Newport taken by British, 225. 

New York city, in 1760, 179 ; held by British, 
224; evacuation by British, 279; rejoicing 
in, 279. 

New York, first settled, 113; patriotic mobs, 
189; abolishes slavery, 405. 

Nina, ship in fleet of Columbus, 31. 

North Carolina settled, 121; secession of, 
449. 

Norwegians said to discover America, 25. 

Nova Scotia, formerly called Acadia, 149. 

Nullifiers of South Carolina, Jackson's treat- 
ment of, 359. 

0. 

Oglethorpe, General James, founder of 
Georgia, 126; treaty with Indians, 127; 
refuses to tight against colonies, 207 ; for- 
bids slavery, 404. 

Ohio Land Company, 288. 

Ohio, made a State, 297. 

Opecancanough succeeds Powhatan, 84. 

Orinoco River discovered, 34. 

Ortiz, John, story of, 46. 

Osceola, chief of Seminoles, 364. 

Otis, James, argument on writs of assist- 
ance, 188; death, 196. 



Pacific Ocean, discovery of, 40. 

Pacific Railroad built, 589. 

Pakenham, Sir Edward, at New Orleans, 

342 ; death, 344. 
Palo Alto, battle of, 376. 
Palos, Columbus sets sail from, 31. 
Panama, Isthmus, 35. 
Panic, financial, 367. 
Parties, two political, 286. 
Patapsco River, 337. 
Patterson, General, fails to join McDowell, 

459. 
Paulding, John, one of Andre's captors, 255. 
Peace, proclamation of, 278; celebration of, 

344. 
Peacock, naval battle of, 326. 
Pea Ridge, battle of, 478. 
Pegram, General, surrenders, 454. 
Penn, Admiral, father of William Penn, 123. 
Penn, William, turns Quaker, 123; buys 

land in North America, 124. 
Pennsylvania settled, 124; origin of name, 

125; riflemen in Revolutionary War, 214; 

abolishes slavery, 405. 
Perry, Oliver, at battle of Lake Erie, 328; 

death of, 345. 
Peru entered byPizarro, 40; conquest of, 43. 



598 



INDEX. 



Petersburg, Union army besiege, 556. 
Phelps, General, encamped on Ship Island, 

496. 
Philadelj)Ma, burning of the ship, 305. 
Philadelphia, laid out, 125; appearance in 

1760, 181; taken by British, 230; occupied 

by Washington, 241. 
Philip, Kfng, son of Massasoit, 130; makes 

war on colonies, 131 ; death of, 132. 
Philippi, battle of, 454. 
Phillips, Wendell, speech in Faneuil Hall, 

415. 
Pierce, Franklin, made president, 403 ; friend 

to the South, 417. 
Pilgrims, embark for America, 95 ; settle at 

Plymouth, 96. 
Pillow, General, in rebel army, 467. 
Pinta, ship of Columbus, 31. 
Pinzon, Alonzo, friend of Columbus, 31 ; goes 

on voyages, 36. 
Pinzon, Vincente Yanez, commands the 

Nina, 31 ; voyage to South America, 36. 
Pirates, encroachments of, 345. 
Pitcher, Molly, at Monmouth, 241. 
Pitt, Sir William, minister of George III., 

186 ; speecli in Parliament, 190. 
Pittsburg Landing, battle of, 484. 
Pizzaro, Francis, enters Peru, 40 ; conquest, 43. 
Planters in Virginia, 84. 
Plattsburg, battle of, 340. 
Plymouth Company formed, 75. 
Plymouth Colony settled, 96. 
Pocahontas, saves John Smith, 81; marries, 

83 ; in England, 91. 
Polk, James K., made president, 375; end 

of administration, 390. 
Polk, General Leonidas, sent to Island No. 

10, 476; killed, 567. 
Polo, Marco, travels in India, 28. 
Ponce de Leon, Juan, discovers Florida, 38. 
Pope, General John, victory at New Madrid, 

486; commands in Virginia, 499. 
Porter, Commodore, at Vicksburg. 520. 
Porto Rico, 38. 
Portugal, Columbus at court of, 29; rivalry 

of Spain, 33. 
Potatoes discovered, 41. 
Powhatan spares Smith, 81 ; death of, 84, 
Prester John, 28. 

Price, General Sterling, neutrality of, 463. 
Princeton, battle of, 228. 
Prison pens in the South, 544. 
Prison ships, condition of, 225. 
Protective tariff passed, 359. 
Protestants in England, 92. 
Providence, built, 105. 
Pulaski, Count, enters American army, 229; 

death of, 244. 
Puritans, description of, 93; settle in Hol- 



land, 94; emigration to New England, 101; 
persecutions, 103. 
Putnam, Israel, wolf story, 212; in New 
York, 219; narrow escape, 224. 

Q. 

Quakers, persecution of, 123. 

Quantrell's raid, 538 

Quebec built, 53; taken by English, 172; 

American defeat there, 217. 
Queen Anne's War, 148. 
Queenstown, expedition to, 319. 
Quincy, J., leader of Federalists, 315. 

Pt. 

Railways, introduction of, 354. 

Raisin, River, massacre on the, 325. 

Raleigh, Sir .Walter, in Paris, 59; buys 
Humphrey Gilbert's commission, 01 ; sends 
colonies, 02, 63; death, 65; introduces 
smoking in England, 86. 

Randolph, Peyton, rising lawyer in Virginia, 
185. 

Ratcliffe, John, member of council in Vir- 
ginia, 76. 

Red River expedition, 558. 

Reed, General, his loyalty to his country, 241. 

Republicans, Henry Clay leader, 315 ; elect 
Lincoln, 434. 

Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 377. 

Resaca, fight at, 566. 

Revere, Paul, ride to Lexington, 199. 

Rhode Island, settled, 105; gets royal char- 
ter, 105 ; abolishes slavery, 405. 

Ribault, builds Fort Caroline, 54 ; second 
visit to Florida, 55 ; massacre, 56. 

Richmond, rebel capital, 457; McClellan's 
march on, 490 ; last siege, 579 ; evacuation, 
580. 

Ridesel, General, commands Hessian troops, 
234. 

Riot in New York city, 532. 

Rochambeau, Count de, comes from France, 
253 ; march to Virginia, 271. 

Rolfe, John, marries Pocahontas, 83. 

Roque, De la, founds Quebec, 53. 

Rosencrans in Virginia, 454 ; succeeds Buell, 
510 ; provisions Nashville, 512 ; march 
through Tennessee, 540 ; at Chattanooga, 
542. 

Ross, General, commands British troops, 334; 
death of, 337. 



S. 

St. Augustine, building of, 55. 

St. Clair, General, evacuates Ticonderoga, 234. 



INDEX. 



599 



Salzburgers emigrated to Georgia, 126. 

Sanitary Commission, work of, 528. 

San Salvador discovered, 32. 

Santa Anna, Mexican patriot, 387; evacu- 
ates Mexico, 396. 

Santa Maria, ship of Columbus, 31. 

Saratoga, battle of, 237. 

Savannah settled, 126 ; siege of, 244 ; British 
give up, 274. 

Schuyler, General Phillip, treats with Mo- 
hawk Indians, 215; stationed at Fort Ed- 
ward, 233 ; superseded by Gates, 237. 

Scott, General Wintield, sent to the Indians, 
364; at Lake Ontario, 332; campaign in 
Mexico, 390; general-in-cliief, 445. 

Selma taken by Unionists, 577. 

Seminoles, insurrection of the, 346. 

Semmes, Raphael, commands Alabama, 561. 

Serapis, battle with Bon Homme Richard, 
249. 

Settlers, new, trials of, 289. 

Seven Days' Retreat, 498. 

Seventh New York Regiment, march of, 446. 

Sheridan's ride, 555; at Five Forks, 580. 

Sherman, General, in Kentucky, 467; takes 
command in the West, 564; march to At- 
lanta, 565; march to sea, 569; enters Sa- 
vannah, 572. 

Ship Island, fortifications on, 489. 

Shirle}', Governor, of Massachusetts, 161. 

Sigel, General F., leads loyal Germans, 463. 

Slave trade, horrors of, 406. 

Slavery, beginning of, 403 ; history', 408. 

Slavery introduced into colonies, 87. 

Slaves, their connection with the war, 514 , 
loyalty to the Union, 515 ; emancipation of, 
516; regiments organized, 517. 

Slidell, John, sent to France, 470. 

Smith, Captain John, sails for Virginia, 75; 
adventures in Europe, 76 ; work in the 
Jamestown colony, 80 ; prisoner among 
Indians, 81 ; goes to New England, 90. 

Smith, Gerritt, early abolitionist, 423. 

Smith, Kirby, at Bull Run, 461 ; enters Frank- 
fort, 509. 

Somers, Sir George, shipwrecked, 82 ; comes 
to Virginia, 83. 

Soto, Ferdinand de, in Peru with Pj^arro, 
45; sets sail for Florida, 45; finds the Mis- 
sissippi River, 47 ; death of, 48. 

South, clamor for free trade by the, 359. 

South Carolina, patriotism of women of, 263 ; 
signs of insurrection in, 362; affairs in, 260; 
secedes, 434. 

Spain, Columbus goes thither, 30; sovereigns 
of, 31. 

Spanish Fort, taking of, 577. 

SjjeedweU sets sail for America, 95. 

Stamp Act passed, 188; repealed, 192. 



Standish, Miles, soldier of Plymouth Colonj-, 

99. 
Standish, Rose, wife of Miles, 99. 
Stark, General John, speech at Bennington, 

237. 
Steam, introduction of, 308; land travel by, 

354. 
Steamer, first river, 310. 
Steinheil, Professor, his telegraphic S3'stem, 

370. 
Stephens, Alexander, of Georgia, 434. 
Stephenson, George, his efforts in steam trav- 
eling, 356. 
Steuben, Baron, military disciplinarian, 251 ; 

in militarj' tribunal which condemns Andre, 

257. 
Stony Point, capture of, 245. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, Governor of New York, 

117. 
Sumner, Charles, beaten by Brooks, 420. 
Swedes, purchase New Jersey, 116. 

T. 

Tarleton, Colonel, massacres militia, 252. 

Taxation of colonies, 186. 

Taylor, Dick, General, command in Alabama, 

577. 
Taylor, Zachary, nicknamed "Old Zach," 

375; marches to Rio Grande, 376; elected 

president, 397 ; death, 401. 
Tea taxed, 193. 
Tecumseh, treaty with, 312 ; allied against 

Americans, 317 ; killed, 331. 
Telegraph, introduction of, 367; laying first 

wire, 368; Atlantic cable, 589. 
Tennessee becomes a State, 291; secedes, 449. 
Terra del Fuego, 42. 
Texas, troubles about annexation, 371; 

made a State, 396; secedes, 434. 
Thames, battle of the, 331. 
Thomas, General, defends Nashville, 568. 
Ticonderoga taken b^' Ethan Allen, 207. 
Tobacco introduced into England, 86; wives 

bought with it, 88. 
Tories, persecution of, 197; departure from 

Boston, 218. 
Tournament in Philadelphia, 2-39. 
Townsend, Charles, on American affairs, 190. 
Trenton, battle of, 226. 
Tr3'on, Tory Governor of New York, 232. 
Turner, John, picture of, 407. 
Twiggs, General, joins rebel cause, 4-37. 
Tyler, John, becomes president, 369. 



U. 

United States Bank, Jackson's war on, 357. 
Utrecht, peace of, 149. 



600 



INDEX. 



Valley Forge, suffering of American army- 
there, 239. 

Van Buren M., elected president, .364; and 
opposes Texas annexation, 374. 

Van Wert, Isaac, one of Andre's captors, 255. 

Vera Cruz, siege of, 390. 

Vermont buj's her independence, 291; volun- 
teers from, 339 ; opposition to slavery, 405. 

Verrazano, Juan, discovers New York, 51. 

Vespucci, first voyage, 35; America named 
for him, 36. 

Vicksburg, plan of siege, 520; taken, 522. 

Virginia named for the queen, 62; perma- 
nent settlement, 75; planters in, 85; Ba- 
con's rebellion, 135 ; condition in 1760, 
183; first meeting held, 189; slaves landed, 
403; prosperity with slave labor, 411; 
secession, 448. 

W. 

Wachusetf, ship, takes the Florida, 562. 

"Wallace, General Lew., protects Cincinnati, 
509. 

Warner, Seth, at Bennington, 237. 

Warren, Joseph, killed at Bunker Hill, 211. 

Washington city, invasion of, 337. 

Washington, George, expedition to the Ohio, 
159 ; services in French and Indian war, 
160: planter on Potomac, 184; made com- 
mander-in-chief, 205; muster of his army, 
212; fortifies Dorchester Heights, 218; 
enters Boston, 219 ; in New York, 223 ; re- 
treat through Jersey, 225 ; crosses the Dela- 
ware, 226; piety, 240; revolt in his armies, 
268; march to Yorktown, 271; disbanding 
of army, 279; inaugurated president, 285; 
re-elected, 291; expiration of term, 294; 
death, 296 ; letter to Lafayette, 406. 

Washington, John, fights Indians in Mary- 
land, 135. 

Watertown, Massachusetts, settled, 102. 

Watt, James, experiments with steam, 174; 
his invention, 308. 

Waj'ne, General Anthony, storms Stony 
Point, 245; mutiny among his troops, 267; 
expedition against Indians, 290; death, 291. 

Webster, Daniel, his orator^', 361; speech for 
the Union, .363. 

Wellington, Duke of, his troops in Virginia, 
333. 

Wesley, John, in Georgia Colony, 128. 

West Country people, emigration to Connect- 
icut, 106. 

West Indian Company, 113. 



West Indies, name, 32. 

West Virginia made a State, 449. 

Whalley, Edward, the regicide, 132. 

Whigs in Revolution, 197. 

Whiskey Insurrection, 294. 

White, John, colony in Virginia, 63. 

White Plains, AVashington encamped at, 224. 

Whittier, John, poet of anti-slavery cause, 

415; "Barbara Frietchie," 501. 
Wigfall, General, goes to Sumter, 439. 
Wilderness, battle of, 551. 
Wilkes, Captain, takes Mason and Slidell, 471. 
William and Marv, sovereigns of England, 

121, 139. 
Williams, Daniel, one of Andre's captors, 255. 
Williams, Colonel Ephraim, founds Williams 

College, 165. 
Williams, Roger, minister in Salem, 104; 

settles Rhode Island, 105. 
Wilson, General James, in Alabama, 577. 
Winchester, battle of, 554. 
Winder, General, musters troops, 333. 
Windsor, first town in Connecticut, settled, 

107. 
Wingfield, Edward, first Governor of Virginia, 

76. 
Winslow, Captain, captures Alabama, 561. 
Winslow, General, expedition to Acadie, 162. 
Winslow, Josiah, commands in King Philip's 

War, 133. 
Winthrop, John, Governor of Massachusetts 

Bay Colony, 103. 
Winthrop, Theodore, letter of, 446; heroic 

death of, 453. 
Wisconsin admitted, 396. 
Wise, General Henry, encamped in West 

Virginia, 455. 
Witchcraft in Salem, 141. 
Wolfe, General James, takes Quebec, 172. 
Women of the South, devotion of, 549. 
Wool, General, march through Texas, 386; 

work in civil war, 445; commands at For- 
tress Monroe, 469 
Worth, General, at Monterey, 379. 
Wyoming massacre, 242. 

Y. 

Yale College founded, 178. 
Yorktown, Cornwallis fortifies, 271 ; siege and 
victory, 272; undecisive battle of, 497. 



Zagonyi, Major Charles, commands Fre- 
mont's bod}' guard, 465. 
ZoUicoffer, Felix, march in Kentucky, 467. 



V 8 7 



CO 



